PayPal Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:PYPL)

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 157,997 call options on the company. This is an increase of 52% compared to the average daily volume of 103,667 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cim LLC increased its position in PayPal by 2.2% during the second quarter. Cim LLC now owns 98,432 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,712,000 after acquiring an additional 2,152 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of PayPal during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $9,517,000. Brown Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of PayPal during the second quarter worth approximately $1,454,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of PayPal by 28.1% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 8,511,242 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $493,907,000 after buying an additional 1,866,925 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of PayPal in the second quarter valued at approximately $286,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PYPL has been the topic of several research reports. Macquarie upped their price objective on PayPal from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on PayPal from $80.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of PayPal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of PayPal from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $71.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of PayPal from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PayPal presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.58.

PayPal Trading Up 6.1 %

PayPal stock opened at $77.57 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.54, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. PayPal has a 52 week low of $50.25 and a 52 week high of $78.25.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.20. PayPal had a return on equity of 22.82% and a net margin of 14.30%. The company had revenue of $7.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that PayPal will post 4.42 earnings per share for the current year.

PayPal Company 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.