PayPal, Intel, and Paramount Stock Hit Multiyear Lows. Insiders Scooped Up Shares.

So far this year, PayPal stock has lost nearly half its market value, wiping out years of gains. Shares traded to as low as $94.50, a level they haven’t traded at since March 2019. There are company-specific reasons for the slide, including poor fourth-quarter earnings and awful guidance.

Still, PayPal insiders were buying up stock when it edged near a two-year low. Now, after shares slipped to a three-year low, one insider bought even more.Frank Yeary, a PayPal director since July 2015, paid $467,833 on Feb. 18 for 4,500 shares, a per-share average price of $103.96. He made the purchase through a trust, according to a form he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yeary had just paid $500,000 on Feb. 4 for 4,000 shares, an average price of $124.85 each—20% more than his latest purchase. Yeary, a manager at private investment firm Darwin Capital Advisors, owns 26,719 shares in a personal account, and another 8,500 shares through trusts.

Yeary and PayPal both declined to comment on his stock purchases.

Intel stock slid to an intraday low of $43.63 last week. Shares of the chip giant haven’t traded at that level since October 2020.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Chairman Omar Ishrak were part of a group of insiders who bought stock when it dipped in late October. Last week, both men bought more Intel stock as shares edged lower.

On Tuesday, Gelsinger paid $247,890 for 5,600 shares, a per-share average price of $44.27. That day, Ishrak paid $497,323 that day for 11,025 shares, an average price of $45.11 each. Gelsinger now owns 268,947 Intel shares and Ishrak owns 46,224 shares.

A former Intel bear upgraded the stock to Market Perform from Underperform last week. Raymond James analyst Chris Caso thinks his bearish thesis has played out. Gelsinger told us earlier this month that Intel can be the stock market’s “next great growth story.”

Intel didn’t respond to a request to make Gelsinger and Ishrak available for comment.

Media giant Paramount Global, which just changed its name from ViacomCBS, saw shares slide to $27.25 last week—the lowest level since October 2020. Paramount stock dropped in mid-February after the company announced it would double down on its streaming-video strategy, pushing expected earnings further down the line.

Credit Suisse analyst Douglas Mitchelson cut estimates for Paramount Global through 2023, and lowered the 12-month price target to $38 from $42 on Feb. 16, after the company’s announcement. Mitchelson kept a Neutral rating. “We believe [the company’s] streaming optimism will prove unfounded due to inability …to scale this business,” he wrote in a research report.

Shari Redstone, Paramount Global’s nonexecutive chair, paid $3 million on Feb. 18 for 104,650 nonvoting Class B shares, a per-share average price of $28.61. She now owns 313,997 Class B shares in a personal account, and another 107,059 Class B shares through trusts.

Redstone is also CEO and president of National Amusements, which owns the majority of Paramount Global’s Class A shares—each carries one vote—and therefore most of the voting power.

Redstone didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Paramount didn’t offer comment. Redstone’s most recent stock purchase was in November.

Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.

Write to Ed Lin at edward.lin@barrons.com and follow @BarronsEdLin.