Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. Increases Position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. increased its stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 13.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,830 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 559 shares during the period. Watershed Asset Management L.L.C.’s holdings in PayPal were worth $297,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in PayPal in the fourth quarter worth $9,267,000. Bartlett & Co. LLC lifted its stake in PayPal by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Bartlett & Co. LLC now owns 9,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $594,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in PayPal by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 847,006 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $53,344,000 after purchasing an additional 73,687 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in PayPal by 4.9% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 20,242 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,183,000 after purchasing an additional 942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bellecapital International Ltd. lifted its stake in PayPal by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Bellecapital International Ltd. now owns 21,685 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,332,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total transaction of $466,079.04. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,430 shares in the company, valued at $1,420,795.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Stock Up 2.0 %

PYPL traded up $1.24 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $64.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 9,897,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,395,941. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.78, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $50.25 and a 1 year high of $76.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $62.53 and its 200-day moving average is $60.04.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The credit services provider reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.12. PayPal had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 20.84%. The firm had revenue of $8.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PYPL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of PayPal from $76.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded shares of PayPal from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $64.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.47.

About PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a technology platform that enables digital payments on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. It operates a two-sided network at scale that connects merchants and consumers that enables its customers to connect, transact, and send and receive payments through online and in person, as well as transfer and withdraw funds using various funding sources, such as bank accounts, PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products comprising its installment products, credit and debit cards, and cryptocurrencies, as well as other stored value products, including gift cards and eligible rewards.