Wolfe Research upgrades PayPal, sees nearly 20% upside
A strong fourth quarter report should set PayPal‘s stock up for another big year in 2025, according to Wolfe Research.
Analyst Darrin Peller upgraded the payments stock outperform from peer perform. Shares of PayPal are already up more than 40% this year, but there’s a runway for fundamental improvement going forward, Peller said in a note to clients.
“We see strong 4Q results and a conservative FY25 guide. We believe PYPL’s February ’25 Investor Day will highlight a path from 4%+ (non-float-impacted) GP growth in 2025 to MSD-HSD gross profit growth in 2026 and HSD GP growth longer-term,” the note said.
Peller also highlighted that PayPal has the largest monthly user base of any digital wallet company outside of China.
“Under the right leadership team, we see plenty of opportunity to monetize this base,” the note said.
Peller set a price target of $107 per share for PayPal, which is about 19.7% above where the stock closed Thursday.
Shares of PayPal were up nearly 2% in premarket trading.
— Jesse Pound
See the stocks moving in premarket trading
These are some of the stocks moving before the bell on Friday:
- Broadcom — Shares surged nearly 18% after the semiconductor maker reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.
- RH — The luxury furniture retailer’s shares skyrocketed nearly 18% in premarket trading after hiking its guidance for financial performance.
- Penn Entertainment — The online sports betting stock popped 5% on the back of JPMorgan’s upgrade to overweight from neutral.
— Alex Harring
Baird raises Amazon price target
Fourth-quarter e-commerce trends for Amazon are tracking in-line to slightly above initial estimates, according to Baird.
The firm increased its price target on Amazon shares to $260 from $220, implying 13.5% upside from Thursday’s close.
Analyst Colin Sebastian cited expanding generative artificial intelligence contributions and encouraging trends in the cloud services segment.
“Our checks are also positive with ongoing market share gains as consumers are responding to low prices and speedy deliveries. This despite increasing competition from Shopify/Temu/Walmart/Shein/TikTok Shops,” Sebastian wrote in a Friday note.
— Hakyung Kim
Broadcom surges following earnings beat
Shares of Broadcom surged more than 18% in the premarket on the heels of the chipmaker’s fourth-quarter earnings topping Wall Street’s expectations and its CEO, Hock Tan, saying that the company is developing custom AI chips with three large cloud customers.
For the period, Broadcom posted adjusted earnings of $1.42 per share, while analysts surveyed by LSEG had penciled in $1.38 per share. Revenue, however, came in weaker than expected, with the company posting $14.05 billion compared to the consensus estimate of $14.09 billion.
This year, the stock has solidly outperformed the broader market, rising nearly 62% year to date.
AVGO, 1-day
— Sean Conlon, Kif Leswing
European markets lower on weak data prints
European stocks opened lower on Friday, on the back of disappointing data prints from the U.K. and Germany.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.2% by 10:25 a.m. London time, with healthcare and mining stocks among those pulling the index into negative territory.
Investors were reacting to unexpected contractions in both the U.K.’s October GDP print, and key export data from Germany.
Sterling was lower against the dollar, while the euro edged higher against the greenback.
— Chloe Taylor
Chinese stocks lead losses in Asia as Beijing’s stimulus pledges appear to fall short of expectations
Chinese stocks led losses in Asia after affirmations from Beijing on its economic policies seem to have fallen short of investors’ expectations.
The mainland Chinese CSI 300 lost 2.37% and ended at 3,933.18, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 1.83% in its final hour of trade.
Most other Asia-Pacific markets also fell, tracking Wall Street declines following a hotter-than-expected producer price inflation reading.
The outlier was South Korea’s Kospi, which gained 0.5% to close at 2,494.46, marking a four-day winning streak, while the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.52% to 693.73, also notching the fourth straight winning day.
— Lim Hui Jie
Broadcom, RH among biggest movers after hours
These are the stocks making the moves after the bell Thursday:
- Broadcom — Shares popped 14% after the company posted better-than-expected earnings and said it’s seeing strong demand as it develops custom AI chips. The company offered stronger-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter and its semiconductor solutions group.
- RH — RH surged nearly 18% despite posting third-quarter earnings that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. The company raising its fourth-quarter guidance and said it expects revenue growth to range between 18% and 20%, versus and LSEG estimate of 7.1%.
— Samantha Subin
Dow futures open little changed