The combination of more generous debit interchange fees and the apparent exclusion of PayPal transactions from regulatory oversight served to move its parent company, eBay, from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ for a number of market analysts.
PayPal has had a good week so far, announcing they have crossed the 100 million user threshold and raising their projections for mobile payment volume. In addition, they are enjoying an infusion of cash from their sale of Skype, which will put more investment capital in play for the company.
“Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts upgraded stock of eBay to buy from neutral Thursday morning. They added that there was a 25% upside to $38 price objective, which remained unchanged.
Citigroup analysts upgraded the stock to buy from hold. They raised their price targets to $38 from $36, and raised their 2012 price-to-earnings target multiple to 17 times from 16 times.”