PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) Research Coverage Started at Bank of America

Bank of America began coverage on shares of PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) in a research note released on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $48.00 price objective on the credit services provider’s stock.

PYPL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore dropped their price objective on shares of PayPal from $65.00 to $40.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Truist Financial reduced their target price on PayPal from $58.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price target on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on PayPal from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective (down from $100.00) on shares of PayPal in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PayPal currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.03.

PayPal Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ PYPL opened at $46.98 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. PayPal has a 52 week low of $38.46 and a 52 week high of $79.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $50.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.43.

PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The credit services provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $8.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.82 billion. PayPal had a return on equity of 25.42% and a net margin of 15.77%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that PayPal will post 5.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PayPal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be issued a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. PayPal’s payout ratio is 10.35%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Chris Natali sold 2,208 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.73, for a total value of $98,763.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,992.20. The trade was a 65.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Suzan Kereere sold 37,613 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.49, for a total transaction of $1,560,563.37. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,285,484.67. This trade represents a 54.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 87,608 shares of company stock valued at $3,831,535 in the last 90 days. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of PayPal

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of PayPal by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,376,927 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,276,205,000 after buying an additional 5,534,462 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of PayPal by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 27,953,803 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,874,637,000 after purchasing an additional 636,441 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of PayPal in the 4th quarter valued at about $949,758,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,215,792 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $713,158,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,843 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of PayPal by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 11,992,031 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $891,248,000 after purchasing an additional 184,014 shares during the period. 68.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting PayPal

Here are the key news stories impacting PayPal this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Concrete PYUSD use case: PayPal’s partnership to enable digital‑asset settlement of freight invoices with TCS Blockchain gives PYUSD a real B2B payments application that could add transaction volume and fee opportunities. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Stablecoin narrative supports adoption: industry reports show the stablecoin market concentrating around a few players, highlighting PYUSD’s growing relevance vs. smaller alternatives. This supports PayPal’s strategic push into tokenized payments. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage with limited upside: Bank of America started coverage with a “neutral” rating and a $48 target, signaling attention but only modest upside from current levels. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Re‑rating / valuation debate: Multiple market writeups are re‑evaluating PayPal after the share reset — this keeps the stock in focus and boosts trading volume but produces mixed buy/hold views. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Major legal overhang — several law firms have filed or solicited plaintiffs for securities class actions alleging PayPal misled investors about growth and guidance; lead‑plaintiff deadlines (April 20, 2026) intensify litigation risk and potential settlement costs. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Several senior executives have disclosed sizable sales (EVP Frank Keller, CAO Chris Natali and others), which investors often interpret as a near‑term negative signal. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest rising and recent downgrades: Reports show increased short interest and fresh downgrades / cautious price targets following PayPal’s Q4 revenue and EPS miss, which remain central to the bearish case. Read More. • Read More.

PayPal Company Profile

PayPal Holdings, Inc operates a global digital payments platform that enables consumers and merchants to send and receive payments online, on mobile devices and at the point of sale. The company provides a broad set of payment solutions, including a digital wallet, merchant payment processing, checkout services, invoicing and fraud-management tools. PayPal’s platform is designed to support e-commerce, in-person retail and person-to-person transfers, targeting both individual consumers and businesses of varying sizes.

Key products and services in PayPal’s portfolio include the PayPal wallet and checkout ecosystem, the Venmo peer-to-peer mobile app, Braintree’s developer-focused payment gateway, Xoom for international money transfers, and PayPal Credit and buy-now-pay-later options.