AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Acquires 216,506 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 135.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 376,937 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 216,506 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in PayPal were worth $28,014,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in PayPal by 15.8% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,501,936 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $224,001,000 after purchasing an additional 476,763 shares during the period. Thompson Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in PayPal by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Thompson Investment Management Inc. now owns 154,991 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,519,000 after purchasing an additional 4,165 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in PayPal during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $325,000. Allianz SE lifted its position in shares of PayPal by 281.8% in the 1st quarter. Allianz SE now owns 30,338 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,980,000 after acquiring an additional 22,392 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of PayPal in the 1st quarter worth approximately $529,264,000. Institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Suzan Kereere sold 4,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.39, for a total transaction of $288,801.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 48,483 shares in the company, valued at $3,364,235.37. This trade represents a 7.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 7,102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.35, for a total value of $492,523.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,102 shares of company stock worth $1,046,607 in the last 90 days. 0.08% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on PYPL. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $70.00 price objective on PayPal and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Truist Financial set a $65.00 price objective on PayPal in a research report on Friday. JMP Securities reduced their price objective 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 4th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PayPal presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.46.

PayPal Price Performance

PayPal stock opened at $70.25 on Tuesday. 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 $67.12 billion, a PE ratio of 15.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.44. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $55.85 and a one year high of $93.66. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.92.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.08 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 25.35% and a net margin of 14.49%.During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.