EP Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 966 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its stake in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 8.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,978 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 966 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in PayPal were worth $668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of PayPal in the fourth quarter worth about $806,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of PayPal during the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,267,000. Fiduciary Alliance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 604.7% in the first quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 53,076 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,452,000 after purchasing an additional 45,544 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 73,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bellecapital International Ltd. increased its holdings in PayPal by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Bellecapital International Ltd. now owns 21,685 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,332,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the period. 68.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on PYPL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of PayPal from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com raised PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on PayPal from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of PayPal from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on PayPal from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.10.

Insider Activity at PayPal

In other news, Director Deborah M. Messemer sold 4,422 shares of PayPal stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.65, for a total value of $272,616.30. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $861,620.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

PayPal Price Performance

PayPal stock traded up $1.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $58.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,249,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,355,946. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.97 billion, a PE ratio of 14.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.42. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $50.25 and a fifty-two week high of $76.54. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.14). The firm 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 4.15 earnings per share for the current year.

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.