Commerce Bank Takes $831,000 Position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Commerce Bank bought a new position in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 19,255 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $831,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of PYPL. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in PayPal during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,236,989,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $949,758,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of PayPal by 67.9% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 10,356,256 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of PayPal by 227.6% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 13,804,208 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $624,364,000 after acquiring an additional 9,590,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of PayPal during the second quarter worth $251,215,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on PYPL. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on PayPal from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on PayPal from $43.50 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on PayPal from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.28.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.10, for a total transaction of $77,679.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 2,216 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,749.60. The trade was a 37.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.96, for a total transaction of $253,715.52. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,888,723.68. This trade 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 ninety days, insiders sold 14,774 shares of company stock worth $738,249. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

PayPal Price Performance

PayPal stock opened at $61.81 on Thursday. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.46 and a 12 month high of $79.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $53.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.92. The company has a market cap of $52.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.68, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.30.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.10. PayPal had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 24.39%. The business had revenue of $8.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.59%.

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.