PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Shares Down 1.1% – Time to Sell?

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)’s share price dropped 1.1% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $50.76 and last traded at $50.88. Approximately 13,453,832 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 39% from the average daily volume of 22,147,387 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.46.

Key PayPal News

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic partnership: PayPal was named the NFL’s official peer-to-peer (P2P) payments partner, which embeds PayPal into fan experiences and person-to-person flows inside the PayPal app — a potential boost to engagement, Venmo/P2P volume and brand exposure. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Bank of America raised its PYPL price target from $48 to $55 and kept a neutral rating, implying some upside from current levels and signaling confidence that valuation could re-rate if execution improves. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Contrarian buy signal: Noted investor Michael Burry reportedly opened a new position in PayPal, describing the multi-year selloff as more technical than fundamental — a vote of confidence that can attract value-oriented investors. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Longer-term recovery thesis: Several market roundups and value-stock lists name PayPal among recovery candidates, reflecting a view that its fundamentals and cash flow could improve over time if competition and execution risks ease. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade on competitive risk: Mizuho cut PYPL from Outperform to Neutral and trimmed its price target to $50, highlighting the competitive threat from Musk’s X Money and pointing to substitution risk for Venmo/P2P and other headwinds — an immediate downward catalyst for the stock. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Legal overhang: Multiple firms are publicizing and filing securities-class-action suits and lead-plaintiff deadlines tied to PYPL disclosures; ongoing litigation increases legal expense risk, management distraction and creates uncertainty for investors. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on PYPL shares. HSBC downgraded PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on PayPal from $76.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Dbs Bank raised PayPal to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $42.00 price target (down from $100.00) on shares of PayPal in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, KGI Securities reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-three have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $57.12.

PayPal Price Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $45.09 and a 200 day moving average of $55.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.40.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The credit services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.29 by ($0.06). PayPal had a return on equity of 25.42% and a net margin of 15.77%.The firm had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th were issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In related news, CAO Chris Natali sold 2,208 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.73, for a total value of $98,763.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,140 shares in the company, valued at $50,992.20. This represents a 65.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 37,613 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.49, for a total value of $1,560,563.37. Following the transaction, the insider owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,285,484.67. This trade represents a 54.83% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 87,608 shares of company stock valued at $3,831,535. Corporate insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at $949,758,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in PayPal by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,276,205,000 after acquiring an additional 5,534,462 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 355.1% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,967,170 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $224,665,000 after acquiring an additional 3,875,688 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of PayPal by 143.4% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,089,586 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $297,130,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 35.9% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,177,536 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $548,520,000 after purchasing an additional 2,160,227 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

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.