Morgan Stanley Lowers PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Price Target to $79.00

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $90.00 to $79.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the credit services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 0.55% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised PayPal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $86.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised PayPal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on PayPal from $92.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group increased their price target on PayPal from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Macquarie increased their price target on PayPal from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.29.

PayPal Price Performance

PYPL opened at $78.57 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $87.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.39. PayPal has a 12-month low of $55.77 and a 12-month high of $93.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $78.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.75, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.44.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The credit services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.08. PayPal had a return on equity of 23.44% and a net margin of 14.08%. The firm had revenue of $8.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.48 EPS. PayPal’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PayPal will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PYPL. FMR LLC raised its holdings in PayPal by 86.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,762,080 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,307,945,000 after purchasing an additional 7,767,072 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in PayPal by 12,919.4% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 10,500,000 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $819,315,000 after purchasing an additional 10,419,351 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in PayPal by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,615,476 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $564,631,000 after purchasing an additional 84,337 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 21.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 6,015,816 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $469,414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069,356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of PayPal in the third quarter worth $387,435,000. 68.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.