Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Decreases Stock Position in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 38.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,468 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 5,813 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in PayPal were worth $634,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter valued at about $806,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in PayPal during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,267,000. Bartlett & Co. LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 740 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in shares of PayPal by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 847,006 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $53,344,000 after acquiring an additional 73,687 shares during the period. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 942 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at PayPal

In other news, Director Deborah M. Messemer sold 4,422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.65, for a total transaction of $272,616.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,976 shares in the company, valued at $861,620.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on PYPL. Mizuho raised PayPal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on PayPal from $63.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective on shares of PayPal in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Stephens lifted their target price on shares of PayPal from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of PayPal from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $73.82.

PayPal Price Performance

NASDAQ:PYPL opened at $58.97 on Wednesday. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $50.25 and a 52 week high of $76.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $63.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.40. The company has a market capitalization of $61.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $7.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.52 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 14.26% and a return on equity of 21.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.86 EPS. Equities analysts expect that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.14 EPS for the current year.

PayPal Profile

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.