PYPL - PayPal Holdings, Inc.
115.06 -0.92 (-0.79%)
Pre-Market: 6:04AM EDT
| Previous Close | 117.16 |
| Open | 118.60 |
| Bid | 115.80 x 800 |
| Ask | 116.20 x 1300 |
| Day's Range | 115.84 - 118.60 |
| 52 Week Range | 74.66 - 118.65 |
| Volume | 6,793,322 |
| Avg. Volume | 6,018,754 |
| Market Cap | 136.268B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.95 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 62.73 |
| EPS (TTM) | 1.85 |
| Earnings Date | Jul 23, 2019 - Jul 29, 2019 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | N/A |
| 1y Target Est | 116.55 |
- Yahoo Finance Video•16 hours ago
Facebook reveals plans to launch cryptocurrency 'Libra' in 2020
Facebook reveals plans to launch cryptocurrency called Libra. The project is also backed by partners including Paypal, Uber, and Mastercard. R "Ray" Wang, Constellation Research Principal Analyst & Founder, joins Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith to discuss.
- Yahoo Finance Video•19 hours ago
Facebook unveils its cryptocurrency called Libra
Facebook has officially announced plans to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra in 2020. Libra named a number of founding members as well including Mastercard, PayPal and Uber. Yahoo Finance's Dan Roberts joins Julie Hyman, Adam Shapiro and Cornell Capital's Ann Berry to talk about the effects of Facebook's move.
- Zacks•12 hours ago
Buy Facebook (FB) Stock Amid Cryptocurrency Craze?
Facebook (FB) announced today plans for a new cryptocurrency project called Libra.
- Zacks•14 hours ago
Palantir's IPO Plans are Just as Secretive as the Company Itself
Investors have been excited for a while now about the potential for a Palantir market debut, even though the company has yet to lay out any specific plans for an initial public offering.
- MarketWatch•17 hours ago
Here’s who America’s CEOs are backing in the Democratic presidential race
It’s still early days in the race to become the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nominee, but a few CEOs of S&P 500 companies already have been voting with their wallets.
- Zacks•18 hours ago
Facebook Reveals Revolutionary Cryptocurrency
The currency will be called Libra and will be managed by the new Facebook (FB) subsidiary, Calibra. Calibra's digital wallet containing Libra is expected to be launched in Messenger, WhatsApp and as a standalone app in the first half of 2020.
- Zacks•18 hours ago
MoneyGram, Ripple Tie Up to Enhance Cross-Border Payments
MoneyGram's (MGI) partnership with Ripple is likely to enhance its cross-border payments business and boost revenue growth.
- Bloomberg•19 hours ago
Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Project: Who’s In and Who’s Out
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. made a renewed push into payments on Tuesday, announcing plans for a cryptocurrency called Libra.Read More: Facebook Wants Its Cryptocurrency to One Day Rival the GreenbackIt will be governed by the Libra Association, a group of companies that will have an equal say in how the cryptocurrency is managed. Almost 30 firms have joined and Facebook hopes another 70 or more will enter the fold in the future.Read Facebook’s Project Libra white paper hereWho’s In:Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., the world’s largest payments networks, as well as PayPal Holdings Inc. are on board. For Visa and Mastercard, it’s a chance to offer the world of cryptocurrencies the same services they provide in card payments. All three companies know the challenges of building a network and can offer expertise in encouraging consumers to use the instrument and cajoling merchants into accepting it.Companies such as Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., and Spotify Technology SA keep millions of credit cards on file, and they risk losing customers when people get a new card or number. E-commerce firms also pay higher “card not present” rates when processing payments, so anything that can reduce these expenses is welcome.“Libra has the potential to bridge the gap between traditional financial networks and new digital currency technology, while reducing the costs for everyone,” said Peter Hazlehurst, head of payments at Uber.International companies, including e-commerce firm MercadoLibre Inc. and telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc, signed onto Libra, too. Blockchain technology and stablecoins are potential solutions for the messy world of cross-border payments, which suffers from delays and high costs.Who’s Out:Large banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., already have their own payments businesses that reap billions of dollars in fees. With regulators still deciding how to treat cryptocurrencies, banks and investment firms are treading cautiously.So far, no large brick-and-mortar retailers, such as Target Corp. and Walmart Inc., are taking part. The industry is always interested in lowering the cost of accepting payments, but traditional merchants have historically been hesitant to accept cryptocurrencies due to volatility and lack of consumer adoption.The largest U.S. technology companies, Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc., are noticeably absent. Many of these firms have their own digital payments businesses and some are experimenting with blockchain technology. Apple has poured scorn on Facebook for repeated privacy missteps and other big tech firms are trying to avoid being associated with the social-media giant.“This is very early -- 27 organizations right now, 100 by the time we launch,” David Marcus, head of the Facebook blockchain team that’s spearheading the project, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “And by that time, I definitely expect to see banks in there, I definitely expect to see other large technology companies and I definitely expect to see more diversity of organizations in terms of geographical distribution.”Square Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is a cryptocurrency fan, but even his firm isn’t part of Libra at launch. Square’s cryptocurrency team made its first hire last week and it’s Cash App is a popular way for consumers to buy and sell Bitcoin.Here’s the full list of founding members and partners:Andreessen Horowitz Anchorage Bison Trails Booking Holdings Inc.Breakthrough Initiatives Facebook’s CalibraCoinbase Inc.EBay Inc. Farfetch Ltd.Iliad SA’s Free Lyft Inc.Mastercard MercadoLibre Inc.’s Mercado Pago PayPal Naspers Ltd.’s PayURibbit Capital Spotify Technology SAStripe Inc.Thrive Capital Union Square Ventures Uber Visa Vodafone Group Xapo Creative Destruction Lab Kiva Mercy Corps Women’s World Banking (Updates with comment from Facebook’s David Marcus in 10th paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected Creative Destruction’s name.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net;Julie Verhage in New York at jverhage2@bloomberg.net;Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg•20 hours ago
Visa, Mastercard, PayPal Join Facebook to Form Crypto Effort
(Bloomberg) -- If Facebook Inc.’s new digital currency goes according to plan, it could one day compete with payment giants Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. But for now, all three are set to work with the social-media company on the venture.The currency, called Libra, will launch as soon as next year. It’s what’s known as a stablecoin, one that can avoid massive fluctuations in value so it can be used for everyday transactions. Industry experts and insiders say the payments companies want a seat at the table to help shape the new currency.Read Facebook’s Project Libra white paper here“It’s not unusual for the incumbents -- Visa, Mastercard, PayPal -- to partner with a disruptor,” Harshita Rawat, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said in an interview. “They would at least want to participate in how this product is being developed.”New payment methods such as Apple Pay and other mobile wallets are often slow to take off, so any competition is likely to be years away. Still, the earlier payments companies come to the project, the more time they have to ensure their businesses don’t suffer.None of these companies has been shy about pursuing collaboration or other strategic opportunities. PayPal alone has spent billions of dollars buying or investing in potential partnerships as well as competitors. While PayPal hasn’t ventured into cryptocurrencies before, it was a proponent of the blockchain technology that will be used to build Libra.Visa and Mastercard are always looking to embed themselves in emerging payment forms. Both have developed partnerships with cryptocurrency and blockchain firms. They’ve said that Libra can help more people gain access to financial products.“We think cryptocurrencies can address use cases that are not really well served today,” such as areas where cash-based payments remain prominent, said Jorn Lambert, executive vice president of digital solutions at Mastercard. “As such we think it will be incremental to what we do and not a replacement of it.”The payment companies are part of the Libra Association, giving them a say in how the cryptocurrency is managed. There’s currently no time commitment, so members can leave at any time. Once the group’s charter is finalized, there will be a minimum time commitment, according to some members of the group who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.“My sense is that they will try their best to partner and engage with Facebook,” Rawat said. “If Facebook takes the angle that they want to disintermediate card payments, then I think they may not want to participate.”Facebook shares rose 1.4% to $191.61 as of 11:12 a.m. in New York after announcing the cryptocurrency venture.(Updates with shares in final paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Verhage in New York at jverhage2@bloomberg.net;Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net;Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, Alistair BarrFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg•21 hours ago
Facebook’s Libra Wanders Into the Bitcoin Bear Trap
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Facebook Inc. on Tuesday launched its ambitious new cryptocurrency, which targets 2.6 billion users and is backed by up to $1 billion in funds. For the blockchain faithful, there was plenty of the usual stuff you see in these kinds of projects: A white paper, a nonprofit consortium to govern the digital coins, geeky technical details on how transactions will be validated, and the promise of open-source code.But for consumers, who will decide ultimately whether or not Libra is a flop, there was only a slightly underwhelming hint of what it might actually be used for: A picture of someone sending money to someone else via a smartphone.Even setting aside the various risks thrown up by the Libra white paper (financial stability, user privacy, and whether it could cope with hundreds of millions of daily transactions), you have to ask why it might be a compelling product. The service described by Facebook, namely sending money “as you might send a text message,” is already offered by plenty of other companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Cash, PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo and Circle, a peer-to-peer payments provider that lets you transfer traditional fiat currencies.Indeed, Facebook itself lets you send cash through its Messaging app. The company even had its own virtual currency before, called Credits, for the purchasing of content from within apps. It didn’t take off.Libra’s sales pitch says that “in time, we hope to offer additional services for people and businesses, like paying bills with the push of a button, buying a cup of coffee with the scan of a code or riding your local public transit without needing to carry cash or a metro pass.” It’s true that you can’t do that on every payments app. But Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg faces plenty of competition in the race toward a cashless society, with other corporate and government rivals already well advanced in their plans. Sweden, for example, is on the road to becoming cashless as soon as 2023. The local mobile payments service Swish was used by about 60 percent of Swedes in 2018, according to a Riksbank survey. It has more than 6.7 million users in the country.This isn’t to write off Facebook’s chances completely. Maybe its financial heft and vast number of users could turn something that’s already pretty convenient today (money transfers and payments) into something ultra-convenient. Imagine a pot of Libra tokens that could pay directly for every goods purchase or app subscription without the need for any currency conversion or card payment. This would, though, depend on Facebook’s ability to manage the huge technical challenge of designing a single coin that can be used truly anywhere.To become a genuinely universal medium of exchange, the company would need to get rival tech giants like Amazon.Com Inc. and Netflix Inc. on board. And why would they want to do Zuckerberg any favors? The idea that Libra is really at arm’s length from his social media empire of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is debatable. Facebook plans to lead the Libra consortium for the rest of 2019, and it will be at least five years before the blockchain technology that supports the tokens is completely decentralized. The ultimate dream of any crypto project worth its salt is that the digital currency doesn’t rely on a single point of control. But even if Facebook manages to get there, does Zuckerberg really want to embrace the dangers of a Wild West cryptocurrency? Bitcoin is a lesson here.And what about Facebook’s targeting of the “unbanked,” or those in the developing world struggling with volatile currencies? Bitcoin and its ilk promised to address the same problems, and have failed completely to help anyone other than speculators and criminals.Zuckerberg’s own patchy record on international payments should give pause too. WhatsApp Pay has struggled to gain regulatory acceptance in India, the world’s top remittance market, because its data storage practices didn’t meet national standards. Libra will have to answer a lot of similar questions about its financial structure and treatment of customer information.Facebook has been on a mission over the past year to recapture the trust of its users. Libra certainly demands a lot of faith.To contact the author of this story: Lionel Laurent at llaurent2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- American City Business Journals•21 hours ago
Facebook introduces Libra cryptocurrency, but promises it doesn’t want to control it
Facebook has unveiled Libra, a new type of money that could eventually become the world’s first widely used cryptocurrency.
- MarketWatch•21 hours ago
Jon Stewart, Mitch McConnell spar over 9/11 fund | Orlando paper’s 2020 endorsement: Not Trump
Comedian Jon Stewart and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are having a back-and-forth over a 9/11 issue, while Orlando’s newspaper says in an editorial that it’s not endorsing Trump just ahead of his speech there.
- Bloomberg•21 hours ago
Facebook Wants Its Cryptocurrency to One Day Rival the Greenback
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. unveiled plans for a new, global financial system with a broad group of partners from Visa Inc. to Uber Technologies Inc. on board to create a cryptocurrency it expects will one day trade much like the U.S. dollar and inject a new source of revenue.Called Libra, the new currency will launch as soon as next year and be what's known as a stablecoin–a digital currency that's supported by established government-backed currencies and securities. The goal is to avoid massive fluctuations in value so Libra can be used for everyday transactions across Facebook in a way that more volatile cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, haven’t been. The project is the culmination of a year-long effort as Facebook seeks to spur growth on its various platforms that already count more than 2 billion users. But it will also likely face skepticism–from regulators who already think Facebook has too much power and plays loose with digital privacy, and from those that are dubious of cryptocurrencies, which are known more for speculative investments and blackmarket commerce than for legitimate financial transactions.Read Facebook's white paper on Project Libra here.If successful, Libra could make Facebook a much bigger player in financial services. Cryptocurrency firms have been trying to build cross-border, digital currencies on the blockchain to disrupt traditional banking and payments for a decade, but nothing has caught on at the scale of traditional money yet.Facebook, which announced the project with 27 partners, is already under wide-ranging regulatory scrutiny over how it handles users’ private data. Growth of its main platform has plateaued in some major markets and crypto payments would be a way to turn messaging – across WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram -- into a business that complements its advertising operation, which generates almost all of its revenue. Facebook shares gained early Tuesday as analysts saw the move as a potentially major new profit stream. “We view Facebook’s introduction of the Libra currency as a potential watershed moment for the company and global adoption of crypto,” wrote Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets who has an outperform rating and $250 price target on Facebook shares. “In terms of scale and importance, we believe this new financial infrastructure could be viewed similar to Apple’s introduction of iOS to developers over a decade ago.”Still, the announcement was met immediately with political opposition in Europe, with calls for tighter regulation of the company. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Libra shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for traditional currencies and called on the Group of Seven central bank governors to prepare a report on the project for their July meeting.“It is out of question’’ that Libra “become a sovereign currency,’’ Le Maire said in an interview on Europe 1 radio. “It can’t and it must not happen.”Read More: Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Project: Who’s In and Who’s OutFacebook Could Be for Crypto What AOL Was for Internet Adoption Crypto Chiefs Novogratz, Allaire Say Facebook Coin Bullish SignFacebook Rallies as Analysts Praise 'Watershed' Crypto Move France Calls for Central Bank Review of Facebook CryptocurrencyTo come anywhere close to matching the U.S. dollar for utility and acceptance, Libra will need to be widely trusted. So Facebook and its partners are mimicking how other currencies have been introduced in the past.“To help instill trust in a new currency and gain widespread adoption during its infancy, it was guaranteed that a country’s notes could be traded in for real assets, such as gold,” the companies wrote in a white paper. “Instead of backing Libra with gold, though, it will be backed by a collection of low-volatility assets, such as bank deposits and short-term government securities in currencies from stable and reputable central banks."The total number of Libra can change, and new digital coins can be issued whenever someone wants to exchange their Libra for an existing fiat currency, so the price shouldn’t fluctuate any more than other stable currencies, according to David Marcus, head of the Facebook blockchain team that’s spearheading the project.“It would make a scenario where there’s a run on the bank completely impossible, because we are backed one-for-one,” he said. Libra will also be audited, he added, an important step in an industry with limited transparency.Facebook has closely guarded its crypto plans for more than a year, though many of the details have already been reported by Bloomberg News and other outlets.Read about how Marcus tapped PayPal talent to build Facebook’s blockchain team.Marcus, who used to run Facebook Messenger, said Facebook plans to build a new digital wallet that will exist inside Messenger and its other standalone messaging service, WhatsApp. Once Libra is up and running, the currency and the digital wallet should make it easier for people to send money to friends, family and businesses through the apps. Libra will run on the so-called blockchain, a database that can use millions of computers to verify transactions, eliminating risks that come with information being held centrally by a single entity. Facebook created a new subsidiary, called Calibra, to build the new wallet and focus on the company’s blockchain efforts.Facebook's track record in payments and commerce has been spotty. A few years ago, it began letting people buy flowers or hail an Uber through its Messenger service. Those features have not been huge hits. In 2010, it began offering Facebook Credits, a way to buy virtual goods inside Facebook games. But in 2012 it scrapped Credits, and in 2013 it started working with third-party services like PayPal process some payments. Facebook's revenue from "payments and other service" was less than 2% of total sales in 2018. When it finally arrives, Libra will be late to a party that’s been going on so long, many of the party-goers have either left or collapsed. Some past attempts to make coins usable for commerce, such as Bitcoin, haven’t widely caught on yet because price volatility mainly attracted traders and speculators. Predecessor stablecoins, like Tether, have been used by some traders to park funds in during times of high volatility, but have not been broadly adopted for commerce.Read more about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s early plans for cryptocurrency. U.S. regulations may represent another hurdle for Facebook. Creating a digital currency doesn’t just require buy-in from financial institutions who need to accept it, and consumers who need to trust it, but it requires approval from regulators, too. The Securities and Exchange Commission has shut down about a dozen businesses issuing their own tokens for violations of securities law. Marcus said Facebook has been in contact with regulators and central banks, but added that the company hasn’t received a “no-action” letter from the SEC yet. That would have safeguarded the project from regulatory action by the agency.One way Facebook hopes to appease regulators is through the Libra Association, a governing body tasked with making decisions about Libra. Firms including Visa and PayPal Holdings Inc. are part of the group. Marcus described these members as “co-founders,” and said they will have an equal say in how the cryptocurrency is managed.“Facebook will not have any special privilege or special voting rights at the association level,” said Marcus, the former president of PayPal. “We will have competitors and other players on top of this platform that will build competing wallets and services.”All Libra Association members are putting a minimum of $10 million into a reserve to help support the cryptocurrency’s value. This buy-in comes with voting privileges. However, the association’s governance structure is still in flux, and most of the group’s crucial decisions, including the creation of its charter, have not yet been decided, according to several members of the group. They asked not to be identified discussing private details.“Facebook will not have any special privilege”Libra’s timing could also pose challenges. Facebook is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over the company’s privacy practices. Some have called for the company to be broken up, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. Asking consumers to put more trust in the social media giant, and giving Facebook a strong entry into the world of digital payments and banking, will likely draw further criticism.Opinion: Crypto-evangelists hoped digital currencies would challenge Big Tech’s data control. Zuckerberg has other plans.The company plans to keep financial data gathered from Libra users separate from Facebook user data. That’s why Facebook’s digital wallet will exist under the Calibra subsidiary, which will house user transaction data on separate servers, Marcus said. If a WhatsApp user uses her Calibra wallet to send money to a friend or pay a retailer, those interactions won’t be stored alongside her social-media profile.“There’s a clear distinction between Calibra and what Calibra has access to, and what Facebook Inc. has access to,” Marcus said. “It’s very clear that people don’t want their financial data from an account to be comingled with social data or to be used for other purposes.”(Updates with analyst comment, French finance minister, and shares.)\--With assistance from Jennifer Surane.To contact the authors of this story: Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.netOlga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.netJulie Verhage in New York at jverhage2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Alistair Barr at abarr18@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- InvestorPlace•22 hours ago
Tuesday’s Vital Data: Facebook, Tesla and Micron Technology
U.S. stock futures are trading higher this morning, ending the standoff that has kept most broad market indexes locked in a narrow range for the past week. The gains come amid optimism that the Fed's two-day meeting kicking off today will end with action supporting higher equity prices.Against this backdrop, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 0.53% and S&P 500 futures are higher by 0.59%. Nasdaq-100 futures have added 1.03%.In the options pits, the summer doldrums took their toll yesterday with overall volume falling well below average levels. Specifically, only 14.3 million calls and 12.5 million puts changed hands on the session. The distance between put and call volume narrowed, however, when looking at the action at the CBOE. By day's end, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio climbed to 0.72. Meanwhile, the 10-day moving average inched higher to 0.65.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsOptions traders swarmed in Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU).Let's take a closer look: Facebook (FB)Facebook shares were flying off the shelf yesterday after the social media king unveiled plans to launch a new cryptocurrency called Libra. FB stock ended the day up 4.24% and is set to open another 1.7% higher this morning.With more than 2.4 billion active users, Facebook is in a unique position to bring the cryptic world of crypto to the mainstream. And the company isn't venturing into the digital currency waters alone. They just announced a slew of large partners including Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Paypal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) backing their efforts. * 10 Tech Stocks to Buy Now for 2025 With the day's gains, FB has returned to the north side of its 50-day and 20-day moving averages, officially recouping all of last month's losses. It now sits within striking distance of its April high near $200.On the options trading front, traders chased calls throughout the session. Total activity ramped to 259% of the average daily volume, with 649,521 contracts traded; 78% of the trading came from call options alone.The increased demand drove implied volatility higher on the day to 32%, placing it at the 35th percentile of its one-year range. Premiums are now baking in daily moves of $3.82 or 2%. Tesla (TSLA)Tesla shares gained 4.7% on Monday to notch a new one-month high. And the rally is continuing this morning with TSLA stock up another 2.5% premarket. One notable development could be fueling the bulls' fire.Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted over the weekend, "Just deleted my Twitter account." Shareholders the world over likely cheered the move given the trouble Musk's aggressive tweets have caused in the past.Although Tesla shares have rallied well off their 52-week lows, many resistance levels sit overhead, including the 50-day moving average. This has been the spot where previous rallies have failed, so it will be telling if TSLA can finally close and stay above it.On the options trading front, puts outpaced calls despite the stock rally. Total activity climbed slightly higher to 109% of the average daily volume, with 427,700 contracts traded. Puts claimed 52% of the day's take.Implied volatility rose to 65%, which places it at the 29th percentile of its one-year range. Premiums are pricing in daily moves of $9.24 or 4.1%. Micron (MU)Micron shares have now come full circle this year. The four-month uptrend that carried the chip stock 41% higher from January through April has now completely unraveled. Its descending 20-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages loom ominously overhead and reveal how bears dominate across all time frames. * 7 Top-Rated Biotech Stocks to Invest In Today With Monday's drop, MU stock now sits at a critical short-term support level of $32. Speculators are likely teeing up breakdown trades in anticipation of the floor's failure.The company's next earnings release is scheduled for June 25, so look for that to provide the next catalyst for Micron's trend.On the options trading front, calls were favored over two-to-one versus puts. Total activity finished just a hair above usual at 101% of the average daily volume, with 123,780 contracts traded. Calls accounted for 72% of the session's sum.Option premiums are pumped up ahead of next week's earnings report. Implied volatility sits at 55% or the 56th percentile of its one-year range. Traders now expect daily moves of $1.11 or 3.4%.As of this writing, Tyler Craig didn't hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Check out his recently released Bear Market Survival Guide to learn how to defend your portfolio against market volatility. More From InvestorPlace * 4 Top American Penny Pot Stocks (Buy Before June 21) * 5 Red-Hot IPO Stocks to Buy for the Long Run * 5 Stocks to Buy for $20 or Less * 4 Dow Jones Stocks Ready to Rise Compare Brokers The post Tuesday's Vital Data: Facebook, Tesla and Micron Technology appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- InvestorPlace•22 hours ago
There Are Really No Good Reasons to Keep Laying off Visa Stock
Visa (NYSE:V) is up more than 25% over the past year, stoked in part by Federal Reserve rate hikes of 2018 that have translated into higher profit margins for credit card companies. The overall fundamental strength of the company has also been the catalyst behind the Visa stock returns.Source: Kārlis Dambrāns via FlickrThe world's largest retail electronic payments network, Visa, is expected to report earnings in late July. There could be some volatility and profit-taking in Visa in the coming weeks, especially as many other financial services firms also report in July.However, I'd encourage long-term investors who would like exposure to the sector to regard any dip in the share price as an opportunity to add Visa stock to their portfolio.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips * 7 Top-Rated Biotech Stocks to Invest In Today Long-Term Visa Stock StrengthsRobust Fundamental Numbers: Visa is a quality blue-chip company with a $370 billion market cap. Since going public in 2008, Visa has rewarded shareholders continuously.The group does not issue credit cards or lend money. Instead, the company operates as an "intermediary," charging a fee on each of the 150 million transactions its network handles every day.Visa has three sources of revenue: * Service revenues (for services provided to card issuers for the use of Visa products); * Data processing revenues (fees Visa collects for the authorization, settlement, or clearing); and * International transaction revenues (for cross-border and currency conversion transactions).On April 24, Visa posted better than expected results for Q2 2019. Revenue for the quarter ending March 31 was $5.5 billion, an 8% growth year-over-year (YoY).Earnings per share (EPS) also increased to $1.31, a 17% YoY increase. As a result of robust growth in payments volume, cross-border volume and processed transactions, the company also increased its outlook for the year.As one of the major credit and debit card processors, Visa has strong pricing power and a good profit margin that stands at over 54%. Visa's leadership position in the industry requires financial flexibility so that the management can continue the growth-centric steps. Its current ratio, which measures Visa's ability to pay off short-term liabilities with its current assets, is a healthy 1.6, compared to the industry average of 2.4.In fact, Visa and its long-time archrival Mastercard (NYSE:MA) can be said to have a duopoly in the cards network sector. Both companies collect transaction fees for without bearing credit risk and control a majority of the digital payment infrastructure. And there does not seem to be much threat to the dominance of either company.Visa's sales numbers are forecast to grow over 10% in 2019 and 2020. Overall, Wall Street expects Visa's profitability, high margins, robust cash flow and healthy financial metrics to continue in the coming quarters, too -- a fact that should bring higher prices for V stock.Mobile Payments Space: Many of us have already paid for a purchase with our smartphones at least once as mobile payments are fast becoming a convenient and swift method to pay bills or make transfers. Analysts expect the global market to reach $4.5 trillion by 2023.The most widely used transaction methods include contactless payments without entering the credit card PIN number at the point-of-sale or using a smartphone to pay a merchant or even a person such as a friend or family member, i.e., peer-to-peer (P2P) payments.If you are looking at ways to benefit from this trend, Visa may be a solid company to consider. It's been boosting its mobile payment offerings. As early as 2011, the group took a stake in Square (NYSE:SQ), the San Francisco-based credit card processing fintech, which was founded in 2009. There are rumors that Visa may end up acquiring Square.Its other strategic investments include Stripe and Marqeta as well as It's currently bidding to buy Earthport,a British payments company, that facilitates money transfer services across borders.Over the past decade, smartphones have become a part of our daily lives and it would not be wrong to expect mobile payments to enter our daily lives in a big way. In other words, as more consumers tap to pay or download an app to transfer money, Visa investors are likely to reap the rewards. What Could Derail Visa Stock?Short-term Technical Analysis and Price Charts: Year-to-date, Visa is up 28%. So, in the next few weeks, there might be some profit taking. As a result of the recent impressive run-up in the stock price, short-term technical indicators have become somewhat over-extended. Investors who pay attention to short-term oscillators should note that Visa's technical message has also become "overbought."Leading up to its earnings report in late July, Visa stock could trade sideways for several weeks and even have a pullback toward the low-$160's or even mid-$150's level, where the stock is likely to find major support.Visa stock's beta is 0.98, which means its volatility on average mimics that of the broader market. Therefore if the industry or the broader market declines as the companies release earnings, Visa may also be adversely affected.Investors may consider waiting on the sidelines if they do not currently have any positions open in these tech stocks.If you already own Visa shares, you might want to hold your position. That said, if you are worried about short-term profit taking, then within the parameters of your portfolio allocation and risk/return profile, you may consider placing a stop loss at about 3-5% below the current price point, to protect your profits to date.Current shareholders may also consider hedging their positions. As for hedging strategies, covered calls or put spreads with July 19 expiry could be appropriate as straight put purchases are likely to be expensive due to heightened volatility.I would not advocate bottom-picking in case of near-term price weakness. Yet, I find Visa stock to be a compelling buy candidate and by the end of 2020, I'd expect the shares to reach $180.Competition in the Mobile Payment Payments Space: The fintech revolution is evolving and the entire payments industry is growing fast. In addition to Visa, several other U.S. companies are leading the mobile-payment race that requires cutting-edge technology. In October 2014, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) introduced Apple Pay which has now become one of the dominant digital payment apps in the U.S.In the P2P space, investors love PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) which owns the popular Venmo app. The app has over 25 million users and is ahead of its closest competitors -- Apple's Pay Cash, Square's Cash App, and Zelle, which is owned by Early Warning Services, a private fintech company.If there are mixed earnings reports or important news from Visa's competitors hit the wires, there may be short-term volatility or decline in the stock. For example, if any of Visa peers were to issue an earnings warning, due to a potential slowdown in consumer spending in the U.S. or globally, then Visa shares could also be adversely affected in the near-term.However, Visa is a solid company with continued growth prospects in mobile payments. Therefore small price dips on daily headlines should not keep long-term investors up at night.In general, whenever Visa stock price has a correction, such as the one it experienced in late 2018, the shares come back rather quickly, only to make a new high in several months. Bottom Line on Visa StockVisa stock is a fundamentally sound stalwart investment with further growth prospects, profitability, leadership in the respective market, stability, and proactive management -- factors that are likely to translate into a strong balance sheet and robust bottom line in the rest of the decade.There are two important secular trends currently affecting the payments sector in the U.S. as well as many other countries, i.e., payment transactions are increasingly moving to mobile and digital payments are surpassing cash payments. As the industry is growing and being transformed, Visa stock may indeed provide a solid long-term investment for many shareholders.Investors who are interested in financial services, but do not want to commit all their capital to a single stock such as Visa may also consider investing in various exchange-traded Funds (ETFs) that have Visa as a holding, including iShares U.S. Financial Services ETF (NYSEARCA:IYG), ISE Mobile Payments ETF (NYSEARCA:IPAY), or Vanguard Information Technology ETF (NYSEARCA:VGT).As of this writing, Tezcan Gecgil did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 4 Top American Penny Pot Stocks (Buy Before June 21) * The 7 Best Tech Stocks to Buy for the Second Half of 2019 * 7 Top-Rated Biotech Stocks to Invest In Today * 4 Semiconductor Stocks to Sell Compare Brokers The post There Are Really No Good Reasons to Keep Laying off Visa Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace.
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4 Stocks to Win Big as Bitcoin Nears $10,000
Bitcoin steers past the $9,000 mark and is approaching $10,000 on reports that Facebook is soon set to launch its own cryptocurrency.
- MarketWatch•yesterday
Facebook's stock set to rise more than 2% after official launch of cryptocurrency Libra coin
Facebook Inc. on Tuesday said it will roll out its highly anticipated digital currency next year, intended to be used to make payments over the internet as well as on its social-media platform. The cryptocurrency called Libra coin uses blockchain, the digital-ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to create its digital currency. However, unlike bitcoin the digital asset will be pegged to hard currencies like the dollar and the euro to make it less prone to the wild prices swings associated with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The move is widely viewed as an implicit endorsement of the blockchain technology and to a lesser extent crypto assets, which were first created back in 2009 when a person or persons known as Satoshi Nakamoto minted the first bitcoin. The Facebook digital payment venture will be backed by more than two dozen companies, including Mastercard Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. , as well as Uber Technologies Inc. and Spotify Technology . The cryptocurrency will be overseen by a Geneva-based company called Libra Association, with many of the aforementioned backers serving as members of the independent organization. Facebook is also creating a digital wallet called Calibra that allows users to safely store their Libra coins. Shares of Facebook were climbing more than 2% in premarket trade Tuesday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average , S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq-100 were also rising, setting up modest opening gains for the U.S. stock market.
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Paypal (PYPL) closed at $117.14 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.83% move from the prior day.
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The 19 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2019
The past year has been exciting, if not a little stomach-churning. A raucous 25% rally to start the year unwound a miserable last few months of 2018, but that big advance has been chopped by one-third just since the beginning of May.Thus, when picking the best stocks to buy for the rest of 2019, you have to approach your selections with volatility - namely, avoiding it - in mind.Maybe the year's second act will be a little less exciting and a little more consistent for investors than the first. But with Chinese trade relations in limbo, Brexit still in the air and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve's future plans for interest rates, calm is far from a guarantee.To that end, here are the best stocks to buy for the rest of 2019. Not only are these stock picks a little less vulnerable to the volatility we've seen of late, but they each have solid backstories and/or fundamentals that should prove attractive if the hazy backdrop remains. SEE ALSO: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio: All 48 Buffett Stocks
- Benzinga•2 days ago
Cramer: Facebook's Expected Crypto A Pivotal Catalyst
CNBC's Jim Cramer said Monday that Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB )'s reported plans for a cryptocurrency are a reason for investors to back the social media stock . If the coin launch goes ahead as expected ...
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Facebook Stock Jumps as Analysts See Crypto Potential
Facebook plans to release a white paper discussing its new cryptocurrency on Tuesday, and many analysts are optimistic.
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Facebook’s cryptocurrency gets backing from Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others
Facebook has reportedly signed up more than a dozen partners to help fund and manage its new cryptocurrency, which it plans to publicly unveil this week.
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Best ETFs Stretch From Argentina To The Sun
What drives the best ETFs in year-to-date performance? They are powered by midcap growth, a South American online marketplace and solar stocks.
