PayPal Stock Surges, Lands Bull Notes After Earnings Win

The online payment concern is paring some of its October losses

Shares of PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) are soaring in early trading, last seen up 8.6% at $84.17, after the company last night reported an impressive third-quarter profit beat. The firm also highlighted a record in net new active accounts and encouraging engagement metrics, and said Venmo payments grew 78%. In response, the stock has seen no fewer than three price-target hikes and one price-target cut from analysts.

Specifically, Stifel and J.P. Morgan Securities raised their respective price targets to $108 and $103, while Canaccord Genuity hiked its price target to $88. SunTrust Robinson, on the other hand, slashed its target to $88 from $92. Overall analyst sentiment has been optimistic toward PYPL, with 29 of 35 covering firms sporting "buy" or "strong buy" ratings.

Likewise, data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows PayPal stock with a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.62. This suggests that over the past two weeks, calls have been bought to open over puts by a margin of nearly 3-to-1.

On the charts, PayPal stock has been a long-term outperformer, butsuffered this month along with the broader stock market. However, the security found support in the form of its 320-day moving average, and today is set to topple its 20-day trendline for the first time since mid-September, when PYPL was flirting with record highs.