PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Trading Down 1.4% – Here’s What Happened

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)’s stock price fell 1.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $46.36 and last traded at $46.97. 15,860,678 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 40% from the average session volume of 26,381,354 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.64.

Key Headlines Impacting PayPal

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Concrete PYUSD use case: PayPal’s partnership to enable digital‑asset settlement of freight invoices with TCS Blockchain gives PYUSD a real B2B payments application that could add transaction volume and fee opportunities. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Stablecoin narrative supports adoption: industry reports show the stablecoin market concentrating around a few players, highlighting PYUSD’s growing relevance vs. smaller alternatives. This supports PayPal’s strategic push into tokenized payments. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage with limited upside: Bank of America started coverage with a “neutral” rating and a $48 target, signaling attention but only modest upside from current levels. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Re‑rating / valuation debate: Multiple market writeups are re‑evaluating PayPal after the share reset — this keeps the stock in focus and boosts trading volume but produces mixed buy/hold views. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Major legal overhang — several law firms have filed or solicited plaintiffs for securities class actions alleging PayPal misled investors about growth and guidance; lead‑plaintiff deadlines (April 20, 2026) intensify litigation risk and potential settlement costs. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Several senior executives have disclosed sizable sales (EVP Frank Keller, CAO Chris Natali and others), which investors often interpret as a near‑term negative signal. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest rising and recent downgrades: Reports show increased short interest and fresh downgrades / cautious price targets following PayPal’s Q4 revenue and EPS miss, which remain central to the bearish case. Read More. • Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PYPL. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of PayPal in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Evercore decreased their price objective on shares of PayPal from $65.00 to $40.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price objective on shares of PayPal from $61.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of PayPal from $58.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued a “sell” rating on shares of PayPal in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.03.

PayPal Trading Down 1.4%

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $50.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.58. The company has a market cap of $43.25 billion, a PE ratio of 8.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The credit services provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.29 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $8.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.82 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 15.77% and a return on equity of 25.42%. PayPal’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.03 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. PayPal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PayPal news, insider Suzan Kereere sold 37,613 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.49, for a total transaction of $1,560,563.37. Following the sale, the insider owned 30,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,285,484.67. This represents a 54.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Chris Natali sold 2,208 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.73, for a total value of $98,763.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,992.20. This represents a 65.95% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 87,608 shares of company stock valued at $3,831,535. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PYPL. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in PayPal during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Kelleher Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of PayPal in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in PayPal during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its stake in PayPal by 15,233.3% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 460 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in PayPal during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

About PayPal

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.