PayPal Exceeds Earnings Expectations as COVID-19 Drives Ecommerce Growth Strong


Shares of PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL,
+ 4.72%
After-hours trading rose more than 3% on Wednesday after the digital payments company beat earnings and revenue expectations amid growing growth in online transactions. (See more about the company’s earnings in the MarketWatch interview with CEO Dan Schulman.) PayPal posted net income of $ 1.53 billion, or $ 1.29 cents a share, compared to $ 823 million, or 69 cents a share, in the prior-year quarter. PayPal’s adjusted earnings per share rose to $ 1.07 per share from 71 cents a year ago, while analysts surveyed by FactSet were modeling 87 cents. That includes a negative impact of 7 cents on loan loss reserves. Revenue for the quarter increased to $ 5.26 billion from $ 4.31 billion. The FactSet consensus demanded $ 4.99 billion. PayPal’s total payment volume, or the value of transactions flowing through PayPal’s platform, increased from $ 172 billion to $ 222 billion, while analysts were looking for $ 210 billion. The company also saw around $ 37 billion in Venmo’s payment volume. Overall, PayPal added 21.3 million new net active accounts in the period. The company revealed that it had more than 60 million active Venmo accounts as of the second quarter, which the company defines as accounts that have completed a transaction within 12 months. For the third quarter, PayPal expects 30% growth in total payment volume, 25% growth in revenue on a neutral currency basis, and 25% growth in adjusted earnings per share. The company also reinstated a 2020 forecast after withdrawing the previous one earlier in the year due to uncertainties related to the pandemic. For the full year, the company expects a high growth of 20% in total volume of payments, a growth of 22% in neutral foreign exchange earnings and a 25% growth in adjusted EPS. PayPal shares have gained 49% in the last three months as S&P 500 SPX,
+ 1.24%
it is up 11%.

.