PayPal Finds Another ETF Home, Will Join QQQ

PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL is nearly five months removed from its spin-off from eBay Inc. EBAY, but that is not stopping the provider of electronic and mobile payments from gaining entry into a wide array of exchange trade funds.

One of the next ETFs to hold shares of PayPal is one of the largest, most well-known ETFs in the world. After the close of U.S. markets Tuesday, Nasdaq said the NASDAQ-100 Index (NDX) will add shares of PayPal before the market open on November 11. PayPal will replace Broadcom Corp. BRCM in the NASDAQ-100, according to a statement.

That means California-based PayPal will become eligible for inclusion in the PowerShares QQQ QQQ, the NASDAQ-100 tracking ETF. Up 11.4 percent this year, the $42.9 billion QQQ hit an all-time Tuesday. Due to the index provider's efforts to include multiple share classes, QQQ is home to 109 stocks, not 100.

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PayPal's inclusion in the NASDAQ-100 also means the stock will be included in the equal-weight equivalents of that index and that means PayPal could soon join the Direxion NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares QQQE and the First Trust NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Fund QQEW.

Just over 50 ETFs currently hold shares of PayPal, but none have a weight to the stock that can rival that of the PureFunds ISE Mobile Payments ETF IPAY. PayPal is IPAY's third-largest holding at a weight of almost 5.8 percent.

PAY, which debuted in July, follows the ISE Mobile Payments Index. That index “tracks companies at the forefront of the mobile, electronic, and digital payments industry,” according to a statement from PureFunds.

The Nasdaq statement did not highlight what PayPal's weight in the NASDAQ-100 will be. QQQ currently allocates nearly 13 percent of its weight to Apple Inc. AAPL. None of the ETF's other holdings command a weight of more than 7.9 percent.