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Citing uncertainty, PayPal leaves full-year guidance unchanged

The parent company of Venmo stressed that its focus on profitability over growth will help it weather economic turbulence.

Matt Phillips

4/29/25 11:51AM

Venmo parent PayPal is up slightly after posting mixed earnings and emphasizing that its focus on profitability over growth will help it weather growing uncertainty for the economy.

The company reported first-quarter earnings per share of $1.33, better than the $1.16 Wall Street had expected. But sales were a slightly soft $7.79 billion, compared to the $7.85 billion that analysts had penciled in.

PayPal didn’t raise its full-year forecast for earnings, either. CEO Alex Chriss explained:

“We had a great start to the year and expect a solid second quarter, which would result in the first half coming in above our prior expectations. However, given it is early in the year and because of the current level of macro uncertainty, we are maintaining our guidance for the full year at this time.”

Investors seem more or less comfortable with that. Shares rebounded after a premarket slump, perhaps soothed by the company’s disclosure in a conference call that less than 2% of its “total payments volume” — the company’s preferred earnings metric — comes from China. That seemed to have assuaged worries that the end of the de minimis tax exemption that the Trump administration is killing off on May 2 could pose a risk to the company, as it has for Chinese companies like Shein and Temu.

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JetBlue is raising its bag fees as fuel costs squeeze airlines

JetBlue will reportedly hike its bag fees, as the cost of jet fuel continues to climb amid the war in Iran. It’s the latest example of carriers finding ways to push rising costs onto travelers.

Last week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if fuel prices remain elevated, fares would need to rise another 20% for his airline to break even this year.

As CNBC reported, when one airline raises fees, others tend to follow.

Earlier this month, JetBlue hiked its first-quarter outlook for operating revenue per seat mile to between 5% and 7%, saying that strong Q1 demand helped “partially offset additional expenses realized from operational disruptions and rising fuel costs.” Now, the carrier appears to be making moves to further boost revenue to offset those costs.

Earlier on Monday, JetBlue rival Alaska Air lowered its Q1 profit forecast. The refining margins for the carrier’s cheapest fuel option — sourced from Singapore and representing about 20% of Alaska’s overall supply — have spiked 400% since February.

JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.