Rakuten Securities Inc. Invests $667,000 in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 10,857 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $667,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PYPL. Vestcor Inc lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 26,063 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,856,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 15,056 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,072,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Oxford Financial Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Oxford Financial Group Ltd. now owns 3,196 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Donaldson Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 3,095 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 1,032 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PYPL shares. BTIG Research reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of PayPal in a report on Friday, January 5th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a report on Thursday, February 8th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on PayPal from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Argus cut PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets cut PayPal from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $62.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.47.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

PayPal Stock Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ:PYPL traded down $0.58 on Wednesday, hitting $62.85. The stock had a trading volume of 3,933,660 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,668,592. The business’s fifty day moving average is $62.15 and its 200 day moving average is $59.86. The company has a market cap of $66.16 billion, a PE ratio of 16.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $50.25 and a 52 week high of $77.94.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The credit services provider reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $8.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.88 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 20.84% and a net margin of 14.26%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.