Wall Street Zen Downgrades PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) to Hold

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

PYPL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their target price on PayPal from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $75.00 target price on PayPal in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 target price on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, JMP Securities lowered their target price on PayPal from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.50.

PayPal Trading Up 0.5%

PYPL stock opened at $69.25 on Friday. PayPal has a 1-year low of $55.85 and a 1-year high of $93.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The company has a market capitalization of $66.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.80, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.30.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.10. PayPal had a return on equity of 25.35% and a net margin of 14.49%.The business had revenue of $8.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.08 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. PayPal has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.180-1.220 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 5.150-5.300 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that PayPal will post 5.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PayPal news, CAO Chris Natali sold 7,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.35, for a total value of $492,523.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Diego Scotti sold 3,838 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.12, for a total value of $265,282.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 16,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,174,279.68. This represents a 18.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 15,102 shares of company stock valued at $1,046,607. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PayPal

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 0.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 86,221,849 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,625,976,000 after purchasing an additional 276,339 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in PayPal during the second quarter valued at approximately $921,570,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its position in PayPal by 1.6% during the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 11,992,031 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $891,248,000 after acquiring an additional 184,014 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in PayPal by 19.1% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 11,238,218 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $733,294,000 after acquiring an additional 1,798,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in PayPal by 5.5% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,038,584 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $746,068,000 after acquiring an additional 522,514 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Company Profile

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.