PayPal craters amid concerns of market share loss in online checkouts
On the surface, you couldn’t ask for more and get less.
PayPal is nosediving despite posting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share, revenues, total payment volumes, and margins that all exceeded analysts’ expectations. Its full-year 2025 guidance also ran ahead of what the Street had penciled in for the top and bottom lines.
The company caught some flak for softness in its branded checkout segment (that is, when you make a purchase via clicking on that yellow PayPal button), with TD analyst Bryan Bergin suggesting that this would be “a sticking point on share loss concerns.”
But when you have results that look this good at the headline level and a price reaction this bad, other factors such as overinflated expectations and being a victim of your own popularity are also likely at play. From late July heading into this report, shares had rallied 56%. BMO analyst Rufus Hone suggested that “crowded long positioning” in the stock is at the heart of the sell-off on Tuesday.
This is poised to be the worst session for the owner of Venmo since the last time it reported Q4 earnings: