Legal & General Group Plc Takes Position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,575,045 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $283,910,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.77% of PayPal as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in PayPal by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,276,205,000 after acquiring an additional 5,534,462 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in PayPal during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,236,989,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of PayPal by 67.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,614,720 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,158,554,000 after purchasing an additional 10,356,256 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at about $949,758,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 227.6% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 13,804,208 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $624,364,000 after purchasing an additional 9,590,488 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PayPal news, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.10, for a total transaction of $77,679.70. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,216 shares in the company, valued at $128,749.60. This trade represents a 37.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 4,162 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.96, for a total value of $253,715.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,888,723.68. This represents a 11.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 14,774 shares of company stock worth $738,249. Corporate insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Price Performance

Shares of PYPL opened at $62.27 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $53.27 billion, a PE ratio of 11.77, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $52.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $47.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.46 and a twelve month high of $79.21.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.10. PayPal had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 24.39%. The firm had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. PayPal’s payout ratio is presently 10.59%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of PayPal from $48.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of PayPal from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $45.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of PayPal from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PayPal has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.28.

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.