PayPal Holdings (PYPL) reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat views, while overall payment volume missed. PayPal shares rose as the company’s own outlook beat expectations amid the announcement that Chief Executive Dan Schulman will retire effective December 31, 2023.
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However, for the quarter ending December 31, 2022, PayPal’s earnings increased 12% over the prior year to $1.24. The e-commerce company said revenue rose 7% to $7.4 billion, beating analyst estimates.
Analysts had expected PayPal earnings of $1.20 a share on revenue of $7.39 billion. A year earlier, PayPal earned $1.11 per share on sales of $6.92 billion.
Total volume of payments processed from merchant customers increased 5% to $357.4 billion. Analysts had projected a total payment volume of $360.38 billion.
In the meantime, Schulman will continue to serve on PayPal’s board of directors after his departure as CEO.
PayPal Stock: Guidance for 2023
For the full year 2023, PayPal forecast earnings per share of $4.87 at the guidance midpoint, an increase of about 18%. PayPal did not provide a revenue outlook for 2023.
Analysts had forecast full-year earnings of $4.79 on revenue of $29.89 billion.
For the full year 2023, analysts estimate total payment volume growth of 9.5% to $1.49 trillion.
PayPal shares rose 2.3% to 80.20 in the stock market today.
San Jose, California-based PayPal has evolved from online checkout to mobile shopping and person-to-person payments. Competition has heated up with Square-parent Block (SQ) and others.
share repurchase
After falling 62% last year, PayPal shares have advanced 12% so far in 2023 ahead of the earnings report.
Meanwhile, the company announced a $15 billion share buyback program in August. About $4 billion of that was expected to be used in 2022.
In addition, PayPal announced plans in January to cut 2,000 jobs, or about 7% of its workforce.
PayPal shares have retraced from an all-time high of 310.16 on July 26, 2021. The shares have a relative strength rating of just 23 out of 99 best possible, according to IBD Stock Checkup
Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on 5G wireless, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
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