What's Going On With PayPal Shares?

PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL shares are trading lower by 1.8% to $64.72 during Thursday’s session after inflation impacting American producers showed mixed results. The Producer Price Index (PPI) headline figure didn’t meet expectations, but the underlying gauge surpassed them, leading to uncertainty about potential delays in interest rate cuts.

Despite the headline figure falling short, the PPI showed a year-on-year increase of 2.1%, the highest in almost a year, following strong consumer inflation data, triggering notable market responses.Read More

Why This Matters

PayPal’s stock is sensitive to changes in interest rates because it operates in the financial sector. Higher inflation readings may lead to concerns about the Federal Reserve tightening monetary policy sooner than expected, which could result in higher interest rates. This can negatively affect companies like PayPal, which rely on low interest rates to support consumer spending and borrowing.

Higher inflation can also erode consumers’ purchasing power over time. If consumers have to spend more on everyday goods and services due to inflation, they may cut back on discretionary spending, including online transactions facilitated by PayPal. This could potentially impact PayPal’s revenue growth and profitability.

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How To Buy PYPL Stock

By now you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for PayPal – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy ‘fractional shares,' which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share. For example, some stock, like Berkshire Hathaway, or Amazon.com, can cost thousands of dollars to own just one share. However, if you only want to invest a fraction of that, brokerages will allow you to do so.

In the the case of PayPal Holdings PYPL, which is trading at $64.94 as of publishing time, $100 would buy you 1.54 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to ‘go short' a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

According to data from Benzinga Pro, PYPL has a 52-week high of $77.95 and a 52-week low of $50.25.