Morningstar Investment Management LLC Buys 31,896 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Morningstar Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 79.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 72,011 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 31,896 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $3,257,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in PayPal by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,276,205,000 after purchasing an additional 5,534,462 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $949,758,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of PayPal by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,215,792 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $713,158,000 after buying an additional 1,083,843 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,179,771 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $415,192,000 after acquiring an additional 376,530 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 8,493,311 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $605,488,000 after acquiring an additional 132,837 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.46, for a total transaction of $66,128.02. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,443.56. This represents a 45.74% 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. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 3,379 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total transaction of $144,587.41. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,325,762.57. This trade represents a 9.83% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,612 shares of company stock worth $966,623. Company insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PYPL. Truist Financial raised shares of PayPal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Citigroup raised their target price on PayPal from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Telsey Advisory Group lowered PayPal to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on PayPal from $42.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $54.96.

PayPal Stock Up 0.3%

NASDAQ:PYPL opened at $56.15 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $38.46 and a one year high of $79.50. The company has a market cap of $49.53 billion, a PE ratio of 10.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The credit services provider reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.07. PayPal had a net margin of 15.00% and a return on equity of 25.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio is 10.51%.

PayPal News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Truist Securities upgraded PayPal from Sell to Hold and raised its price target to $57 from $44, signaling improved confidence in the stock and helping sentiment around PYPL. Article: Benzinga report on Truist upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Stripe and Advent International have approached PayPal with a $53 billion takeover bid have fueled speculation that PYPL could be worth more in a deal, boosting investor interest. Article: Yahoo Finance takeover report
• Neutral Sentiment: Options traders are pricing in about an 8.8% swing around next week’s earnings, indicating elevated expectations and potential volatility rather than a clear directional view. Article: TipRanks earnings volatility report
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts say investors are focused on TPV growth, platform expansion, margins, and competition heading into earnings, with macro uncertainty still clouding the outlook. Article: Zacks preview
• Neutral Sentiment: PayPal remains a low-valuation name by market standards, with investors noting its roughly 11x earnings multiple and ongoing share repurchases as support for long-term value. Article: 24/7 Wall St. valuation note

PayPal Company Profile

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.