PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Shares Up 2.9% Following Analyst Upgrade

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) shares traded up 2.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $94.00 to $97.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. PayPal traded as high as $90.08 and last traded at $89.74. 2,656,718 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 7,092,667 shares. The stock had previously closed at $87.18.

PYPL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of PayPal from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of PayPal from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Wolfe Research raised shares of PayPal from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $107.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of PayPal from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of PayPal from $94.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.16.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PayPal

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC boosted its stake in PayPal by 86.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,762,080 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,307,945,000 after purchasing an additional 7,767,072 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in PayPal by 12,919.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 10,500,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $819,315,000 after purchasing an additional 10,419,351 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in PayPal by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,636,644 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $501,184,000 after purchasing an additional 276,287 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in PayPal by 28.1% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 8,511,242 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $493,907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,866,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in shares of PayPal by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 6,015,816 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $469,414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069,356 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $86.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market cap of $89.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.44.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $7.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.88 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 14.08% and a return on equity of 23.44%. The company’s 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 EPS. On average, analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal 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.