PayPal Crushed Earnings Expectations. Here’s What Its Stock Is Doing.

Paypal added 16 million new accounts in the fourth quarter, bringing its total client base to 377 million accounts, and continuing its momentum from earlier in the year. A 39% jump in total payment volume helped Paypal earn an adjusted $1.08 per share on $6.12 billion in revenue, topping analyst expectations of earnings of $1.00 per share on sales of $6.09 billion.  

“PayPal delivered record performance in 2020 as businesses of all sizes have digitized in the wake of the pandemic,” Dan Schulman, chief executive of Paypal, said in a statement. “In this historic year, we released more products than ever before and have dramatically scaled our acceptance worldwide, giving our 377 million consumer and merchant accounts even more reasons to use our platform.”

The last year was the strongest in Paypal’s history and the company expects to build on that momentum. Households and businesses that were anxious about transacting online found themselves forced to do just that when large parts of the economy were shuttered–and many found they liked it. Paypal has also launched several new products over the last year, including a “buy now, pay later” option and the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, in a bid to keep clients using the site.

Following a strong 2020, Paypal felt confident enough to issue guidance for 2021. The company expects that total payment volumes will grow in the high 20% range next year as it plans to add roughly 50 million new accounts. Revenue is expected to grow roughly 19% and full-year adjusted earnings are forecast to come in at $4.54 per share compared to $3.88 per share in 2021 based on the company’s estimate for 17% year-over-year growth.

Paypal will host a call with analysts at 5pm ET.

Write to Carleton English at [email protected]