Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Hold” Rating for PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL)

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

PYPL has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on PayPal from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of PayPal from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Phillip Securities reaffirmed an “accumulate” rating and set a $90.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of PayPal in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America raised PayPal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $86.00 to $103.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of PayPal from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.29.

PayPal Price Performance

Shares of PYPL opened at $78.57 on Wednesday. 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 simple moving average is $87.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.75, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.44. PayPal has a twelve month low of $55.77 and a twelve month high of $93.66.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The credit services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.27 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 23.44% and a net margin of 14.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.48 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that PayPal will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PayPal

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PYPL. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its holdings in PayPal by 12,919.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 10,419,351 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased 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 buying an additional 7,767,072 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in PayPal in the 3rd quarter worth $387,435,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in PayPal by 174.1% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 4,233,341 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $361,316,000 after buying an additional 2,689,162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal during the fourth quarter valued at about $135,537,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

About PayPal

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.