Texas Yale Capital Corp. Acquires New Stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Texas Yale Capital Corp. acquired a new stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 23,975 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,608,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. National Pension Service increased its holdings in PayPal by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,855,897 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $191,516,000 after acquiring an additional 51,268 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of PayPal by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 164,901 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,058,000 after purchasing an additional 22,139 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of PayPal by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,292,583 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $291,338,000 after purchasing an additional 313,180 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of PayPal during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $13,210,000. Finally, Ariose Capital Management Ltd lifted its stake in PayPal by 347.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ariose Capital Management Ltd now owns 193,100 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $12,949,000 after buying an additional 149,898 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on PayPal from $62.00 to $45.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Zacks Research lowered shares of PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of PayPal from $60.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PayPal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.03.

PayPal Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of PYPL stock opened at $40.29 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $37.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.45, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.43. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.46 and a 1-year high of $79.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.85.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The credit services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.82 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 15.77% and a return on equity of 25.42%. PayPal’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.03 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In related news, EVP Frank Keller sold 3,478 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.20, for a total value of $139,815.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 51,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,072,993.40. This trade represents a 6.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 4,162 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.84, for a total value of $249,054.08. Following the sale, the insider owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,022.72. This represents a 11.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

About PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a global digital payments platform that enables consumers and merchants to send and receive payments online, on mobile devices and at the point of sale. The company provides a broad set of payment solutions, including a digital wallet, merchant payment processing, checkout services, invoicing and fraud-management tools. PayPal’s platform is designed to support e-commerce, in-person retail and person-to-person transfers, targeting both individual consumers and businesses of varying sizes.

Key products and services in PayPal’s portfolio include the PayPal wallet and checkout ecosystem, the Venmo peer-to-peer mobile app, Braintree’s developer-focused payment gateway, Xoom for international money transfers, and PayPal Credit and buy-now-pay-later options.