Panagora Asset Management Inc. Buys 170,485 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 33.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 675,382 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 170,485 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in PayPal were worth $39,429,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PayPal by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $5,276,205,000 after purchasing an additional 5,534,462 shares during the last quarter. Rule One Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,043,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of PayPal by 47.8% in the 3rd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 411,262 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $27,579,000 after purchasing an additional 132,942 shares during the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of PayPal by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 463,701 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $31,096,000 after purchasing an additional 80,744 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of PayPal by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 27,953,803 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,874,637,000 after purchasing an additional 636,441 shares during the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting PayPal

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Michael Burry increased his PayPal position, which investors are interpreting as a vote of confidence in the stock’s long-term upside. PYPL Stock Climbs Overnight: Michael Burry Adds To PayPal Bet, Says ‘The Body Has Yet To Show’
• Positive Sentiment: PayPal continues to screen as a cheap value stock, with commentary pointing to aggressive share repurchases, solid free cash flow generation, and a valuation around 8x earnings, all of which can attract bargain hunters. PayPal Trades at Less Than 8X Earnings. Is This a Bargain or a Value Trap?
• Neutral Sentiment: PayPal is drawing increased trader attention and social-media discussion, but the move appears driven more by speculation and valuation debate than by a fresh company-specific operating update. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
• Negative Sentiment: Some analysts and commentators still see major risks, including slower growth, competitive pressure in digital payments, and uncertainty following the CEO shake-up, which keeps the bullish case from being clear-cut.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PYPL shares. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on PayPal in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Daiwa Securities Group raised PayPal from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $50.00 price target (down from $60.00) on shares of PayPal in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on PayPal from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PayPal news, insider Frank Keller sold 10,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.96, for a total transaction of $536,170.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 41,567 shares in the company, valued at $2,076,687.32. This trade represents a 20.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.46, for a total value of $66,128.02. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 1,586 shares in the company, valued at $78,443.56. The trade was a 45.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 20,612 shares of company stock worth $966,623 in the last ninety days. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

PayPal Price Performance

Shares of PYPL stock opened at $42.49 on Tuesday. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $38.46 and a 52-week high of $79.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $45.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.72.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The credit services provider reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.05 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 25.02% and a net margin of 15.00%.PayPal’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.3 earnings per share for the current year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.51%.

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.