Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Acquires 4,803 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 67.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,901 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,803 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $797,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of PYPL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter worth about $749,561,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in PayPal by 125.1% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,724,188 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $105,882,000 after purchasing an additional 958,130 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in PayPal by 15.8% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,644,317 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $445,103,000 after purchasing an additional 904,804 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake in PayPal by 4,024.5% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 783,248 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $48,099,000 after buying an additional 764,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of PayPal by 1,309.2% during the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 800,648 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $49,168,000 after purchasing an additional 743,833 shares in the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PYPL. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of PayPal from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Mizuho upgraded shares of PayPal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, May 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $69.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a report on Monday, June 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on PayPal from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PayPal presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.63.

PayPal Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:PYPL traded up $0.14 during trading on Thursday, reaching $58.21. The stock had a trading volume of 4,294,500 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,319,928. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $50.25 and a one year high of $76.54. The company has a market capitalization of $60.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.66, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.42.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $7.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.52 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 21.58% and a net margin of 14.26%. PayPal’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at PayPal

In other news, Director Deborah M. Messemer sold 4,422 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.65, for a total transaction of $272,616.30. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,976 shares in the company, valued at $861,620.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.