Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Sells 215 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lowered its position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,711 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 215 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $228,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PYPL. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of PayPal during the fourth quarter valued at $9,267,000. Bartlett & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in PayPal by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Bartlett & Co. LLC now owns 9,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $594,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in PayPal by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 847,006 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $53,344,000 after buying an additional 73,687 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its stake in PayPal by 4.9% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 20,242 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,183,000 after buying an additional 942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bellecapital International Ltd. raised its stake in shares of PayPal by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Bellecapital International Ltd. now owns 21,685 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,332,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Price Performance

PYPL opened at $64.43 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $67.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.45. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $50.25 and a 12 month high of $76.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.04.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The credit services provider reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.12. PayPal had a return on equity of 20.84% and a net margin of 14.26%. The company had revenue of $8.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered PayPal from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on PayPal from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of PayPal from $100.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of PayPal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In other news, SVP Frank Keller sold 7,686 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.64, for a total transaction of $466,079.04. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,420,795.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.13% 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.