Leavell Investment Management Inc. Buys 7,196 Shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) by 40.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,207 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,196 shares during the quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in PayPal were worth $2,151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PYPL. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PayPal by 113.8% during the 4th quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 7,470 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $638,000 after buying an additional 3,976 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in PayPal during the third quarter valued at about $387,435,000. United Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PayPal in the third quarter valued at about $810,000. FCG Investment Co bought a new position in shares of PayPal in the third quarter worth about $1,079,000. Finally, Equity Investment Corp increased its stake in shares of PayPal by 3.5% in the third quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 1,998,298 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $155,927,000 after purchasing an additional 67,497 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PYPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America raised PayPal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $86.00 to $103.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of PayPal from $88.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of PayPal in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of PayPal from $94.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of PayPal from $92.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.52.

PayPal Stock Performance

PayPal stock opened at $76.27 on Thursday. PayPal Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $56.97 and a 12-month high of $93.66. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.44.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The credit services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $8.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.27 billion. PayPal had a net margin of 13.04% and a return on equity of 23.67%. PayPal’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.48 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that PayPal Holdings, Inc. will post 5.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.