PayPal Shares May Never Come Down

Jim Cramer calls PYPL brilliant and says it's going higher.

Author:: Bret Kenwell
Publish date:: Jul 27, 2017 2:34 PM EDT

Forget FANG (even though Facebook Inc. (FB) - Get Reporthad stellar earnings results).

Well, just don't let Wall Street's focus on Facebook, Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) - Get Report , Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) - Get Report and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL) - Get Report (GOOG) - Get Report , the FANGs, cause you to forget PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) - Get Report .

PYPL stock is up more than 50% on the year when we take into consideration the stock's post-earnings rally. Shares are only up about 4% in Thursday morning trade, but that's likely due to its already explosive rally this year. The one-year results are even more impressive, with shares up about 60%.

PayPal beat on earnings per share and revenue expectations for the most recent quarter, raised guidance and announced a new partnership with Baidu (BIDU) - Get Report . This follows a recent partnership with Apple (AAPL) - Get Report as well.

The rally should be of little surprise, as TheStreet's founder Jim Cramer, who also manages the Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust portfolio, told us a few weeks ago that PayPal is "brilliant and it's going higher." Shares are up more than 10% since.

The recent earnings beat brought out the analysts, too.

Goldman Sachs raised its price target on PYPL stock to $72 from $60, implying about 20% upside from current levels. Nomura raised its price target to $68 from $57, implying about 13% upside.

They weren't alone, as Credit Suisse analyst Paul Condra boosted his price target to $63 from $56. He likes the company's strong volume growth and user metrics. Oppenheimer's Glenn Greene boosted his price target 30% to $65 from $50, arguing that PayPal's recent partnerships offer significant long-term potential. Both analysts reiterated their outperform rating.

Unlike Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) - Get Report , there's no controversy in this one. So let's give PayPal three cheers -- scratch that, four cheers -- for a job well done.