Blue Trust Inc. Sells 719 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Blue Trust Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,888 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 719 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in PayPal were worth $537,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PYPL. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of PayPal by 86.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,762,080 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,307,945,000 after acquiring an additional 7,767,072 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in PayPal by 12,919.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 10,500,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $819,315,000 after purchasing an additional 10,419,351 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in PayPal by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 6,015,816 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $469,414,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069,356 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal in the 3rd quarter valued at about $387,435,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 12.9% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 3,189,947 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $248,912,000 after purchasing an additional 364,851 shares in the last quarter. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Macquarie increased their price objective on PayPal from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of PayPal from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wolfe Research raised shares of PayPal from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $107.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of PayPal from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of PayPal from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.48.

PayPal Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of PayPal stock opened at $89.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.25. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $88.04 and a 200-day moving average of $78.53. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.77 and a 52-week high of $93.66. The stock has a market cap of $89.80 billion, a PE ratio of 21.38, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.44.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.13. PayPal had a net margin of 14.08% and a return on equity of 23.44%. The firm had revenue of $7.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.58 EPS for the current 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.