PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Price Target Increased to $68.00 by Analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) had its price objective raised by Sanford C. Bernstein from $66.00 to $68.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has a market perform rating on the credit services provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of PayPal from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Daiwa Capital Markets cut shares of PayPal from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $64.00 to $62.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an equal weight rating and issued a $66.00 target price (down from $118.00) on shares of PayPal in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of PayPal from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of PayPal from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.47.

PayPal Trading Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ:PYPL opened at $62.10 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $62.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.90. PayPal has a 12 month low of $50.25 and a 12 month high of $76.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market cap of $65.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.45.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The credit services provider reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.12. PayPal had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 20.84%. The firm had revenue of $8.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.88 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that PayPal will post 3.93 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at PayPal

In other news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total value of $466,079.04. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,420,795.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PayPal

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PYPL. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in PayPal by 110,462.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,136,071 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,220,431,000 after purchasing an additional 17,120,572 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in PayPal during the fourth quarter valued at $1,022,333,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in PayPal by 122.0% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 6,230,481 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $720,555,000 after purchasing an additional 3,424,122 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its position in PayPal by 36.2% during the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 10,771,095 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $718,755,000 after acquiring an additional 2,862,766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in PayPal by 420.6% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,238,980 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $190,371,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,774 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

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.