PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Trading Up 3.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) shot up 3.1% during trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $75.00 to $80.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. PayPal traded as high as $86.95 and last traded at $86.62. 2,537,429 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 6,823,171 shares. The stock had previously closed at $83.99.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on PYPL. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on PayPal from $76.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut PayPal from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of PayPal from $73.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of PayPal from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of PayPal from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.32.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in PayPal during the 3rd quarter valued at about $387,435,000. United Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in PayPal during the third quarter valued at approximately $810,000. FCG Investment Co acquired a new position in PayPal in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,079,000. Equity Investment Corp lifted its position in PayPal by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,998,298 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $155,927,000 after buying an additional 67,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weil Company Inc. boosted its stake in shares of PayPal by 68.9% during the 3rd quarter. Weil Company Inc. now owns 41,689 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,253,000 after buying an additional 17,003 shares during the period. 68.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PayPal Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $87.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.15 billion, a PE ratio of 21.22, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.44.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit services provider reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $7.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 23.44% and a net margin of 14.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current year.

PayPal Company Profile

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a technology platform that enables digital payments on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. It operates a two-sided network at scale that connects merchants and consumers that enables its customers to connect, transact, and send and receive payments through online and in person, as well as transfer and withdraw funds using various funding sources, such as bank accounts, PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products comprising its installment products, credit and debit cards, and cryptocurrencies, as well as other stored value products, including gift cards and eligible rewards.