Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Reduces Stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. $PYPL

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lessened its holdings in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 74.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,911 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 29,116 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of PayPal by 0.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 276,339 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in PayPal by 19.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,798,330 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in PayPal by 14.9% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,516,070 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $620,924,000 after purchasing an additional 1,232,155 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in PayPal by 44.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 8,559,376 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $558,499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,638,815 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of PayPal during the 1st quarter valued at about $529,264,000. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In related news, insider Suzan Kereere sold 4,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.39, for a total value of $288,801.18. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 48,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,364,235.37. This trade represents a 7.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PYPL. Argus upped their target price on PayPal from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JMP Securities decreased their price target on PayPal from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of PayPal from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.31.

PayPal Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of PYPL stock opened at $67.93 on Friday. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.85 and a 1-year high of $93.66. The company has a market cap of $64.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.61, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.04.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $8.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.21 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 14.96% and a return on equity of 25.64%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. PayPal has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.270-1.310 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 5.350-5.390 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 19th.

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.