Banking, finance, and taxes

What Analysts Are Saying About PayPal After Earnings

Chris Lange

Published: April 27, 2017 11:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 12:34 pm

When PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) reported its first-quarter financial results late on Wednesday, the numbers blew estimates out of the water. A few analysts have taken this opportunity to weigh in on the stock and adjust their targets. For the most part, the analyst response was bullish, and investors responded by sending shares to new highs in Thursday’s session.

24/7 Wall St. has included some highlights from the earnings report, as well as what a few analysts are saying about the company after earnings.

The company posted $0.44 in earnings per share (EPS) and $2.98 billion in revenue, versus consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.41 in EPS and revenue of $2.94 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.37 and $2.54 billion in revenue.

Some 6.0 million active customer accounts were added during the quarter, and the company ended up with a total of 203 million active customer accounts, including 16 million merchant accounts.

At the same time, 1.7 billion payment transactions took place in the quarter, an increase of 23% from last year. On average there was 32 payment transactions per active account on a trailing 12-month basis, an increase of 12%. There was $99 billion processed in total payment volume, up 23% from last year, or 25% on a currency-neutral basis.

PayPal recently announced an expansion of its relationship with Google and Wells Fargo. PayPal will be available in the Android Pay wallet in the United States and accepted as a way to pay at the millions of retailers that accept Android Pay at the point of sale. The company will also be expanding with Visa into the Asia-Pacific region.

Analysts had this to say after earnings were reported:

• BMO raised its price target to $52 from $47.
• Barclays has an Overweight rating and lifted its price target to $50 from $48.
• Canaccord Genuity has a Hold rating and raised its price target from $40 to $45.
• Cowen has a Market Perform rating and raised its price target to $42 from $39.
• Evercore ISI raised its price target by $3 to $50.
• KBW raised its price target to $55 from $48.
• Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $44 from $42.
• Susquehanna raised its price target from $50 to $55.

Shares of PayPal were last seen up 7.3% at $47.64 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $47.30 and a 52-week trading range of $34.00 to $48.10.