Chris Natali Sells 552 Shares of PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Stock

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) CAO Chris Natali sold 552 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.80, for a total value of $30,249.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $131,520. This trade represents a 18.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Chris Natali also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, July 29th, Chris Natali sold 1,337 shares of PayPal stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.10, for a total value of $77,679.70.

PayPal Stock Performance

PayPal stock traded down $1.78 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $53.18. The company had a trading volume of 9,714,165 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,377,672. The company has a market capitalization of $45.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.28. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.46 and a 12-month high of $79.21. The company’s fifty day moving average is $55.26 and its 200-day moving average is $48.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.10. PayPal had a net margin of 14.36% and a return on equity of 24.39%. The firm had revenue of $8.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. PayPal’s payout ratio is presently 10.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PYPL shares. BNP Paribas Exane increased their target price on shares of PayPal from $43.50 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Citigroup lifted their price target on PayPal from $48.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on PayPal from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on PayPal from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.03.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PYPL. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in PayPal during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,236,989,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 4,036.2% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 55,904,110 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,413,939,000 after acquiring an additional 54,552,522 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of PayPal in the second quarter valued at approximately $975,563,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $949,758,000. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal in the second quarter worth approximately $422,092,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Company Profile

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a global digital payments platform that enables consumers and merchants to send and receive payments online, on mobile devices and at the point of sale. The company provides a broad set of payment solutions, including a digital wallet, merchant payment processing, checkout services, invoicing and fraud-management tools. PayPal’s platform is designed to support e-commerce, in-person retail and person-to-person transfers, targeting both individual consumers and businesses of varying sizes.

Key products and services in PayPal’s portfolio include the PayPal wallet and checkout ecosystem, the Venmo peer-to-peer mobile app, Braintree’s developer-focused payment gateway, Xoom for international money transfers, and PayPal Credit and buy-now-pay-later options.