PayPal’s Payment Volume Rises at Start of ‘Transition Year’

(Bloomberg) -- PayPal Holdings Inc.’s payment volume climbed 14% in the first quarter on increased consumer spending globally, giving a boost to the firm’s shares in early trading.
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Total payment volume was $403.9 billion in the first quarter, PayPal said in a statement Tuesday, topping analysts’ estimates of $392.9 billion. For all of 2024, the firm is expecting earnings per diluted share to be about $3.65, compared with $3.84 the prior year, when it included gains from the sale of Happy Returns — a firm that helps consumers return unwanted items — and from the company’s investment portfolio. The forecast was lower than analysts are expecting.
The company is expecting adjusted earnings per diluted share to increase “by a mid to high single-digit percentage” in 2024 from $3.83, based on new accounting methodology, last year.
PayPal is seeking to curb expenses and right-size the business following a slew of acquisitions. The company overhauled its upper leadership late last year and months later announced plans to cut about 9% of its workforce as part of Chief Executive Officer Alex Chriss’s efforts to boost profits.
The CEO said Tuesday that 2024 “remains a transition year” for the firm. “We are focused on execution – driving our key strategic initiatives, realizing cost savings and reinvesting appropriately to position the company for consistent, high-quality profitable growth in the future,” he said.
Chriss aims to take a particularly close look at PayPal’s relationships with small-business customers, an area where PayPal “took its eye off the ball,” he said on a conference call Tuesday. He said the company aims to correct its approach.
PayPal shares rose 1.4% to $67.92 Tuesday. They’ve gained 11% this year.
The company reported $6.53 billion in total operating expenses for the quarter, up from $6.04 billion a year earlier. Transaction margin dollars — a key indicator of expense control — rose 4% to $3.5 billion. Revenue increased 9% to $7.7 billion, higher than analysts estimated.
PayPal plans to repurchase at least $5 billion of shares this year, it said in an investor presentation Tuesday.
(Updates share price in third-to-last paragraph. Previous versions of this story corrected the payment volume figure in second paragraph and 2024 forecast in third.)