PayPal Stock Plummets 20% Amid CEO Change and Weak Guidance
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 3 days ago
0mins
Should l Buy PYPL?
Source: seekingalpha
- Earnings Miss: PayPal reported Q4 revenue of $8.68 billion, falling short of the $8.79 billion consensus, leading to a 20% stock drop, which highlights the company's struggles in the retail sector and international challenges, negatively impacting investor confidence.
- Leadership Change: The company announced the appointment of Enrique Lores, former CEO of HP, as the new CEO effective March 1, aiming to enhance branded checkout execution, reflecting management's concerns over inadequate strategic execution.
- Cash Flow and Buyback Plans: Despite challenges, PayPal anticipates generating $6.4 billion in free cash flow in 2025 and plans a $6 billion share buyback in 2026, demonstrating financial resilience and confidence in future prospects.
- Intensifying Competition: PayPal's branded checkout growth slowed to just 1%, down from 5% in the previous quarter, while facing fierce competition from Apple Pay and Google Wallet, indicating significant pressure on the company's market share.
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Analyst Views on PYPL
Wall Street analysts forecast PYPL stock price to rise
29 Analyst Rating
6 Buy
19 Hold
4 Sell
Hold
Current: 39.080
Low
51.00
Averages
72.86
High
100.00
Current: 39.080
Low
51.00
Averages
72.86
High
100.00
About PYPL
PayPal Holdings, Inc. offers a technology platform. The Company’s products are designed to enable digital payments and simplify commerce experiences for consumers and merchants to make selling, shopping, and sending and receiving money simple, personalized, and secure, online or offline, including mobile. It provides consumers with a digital wallet that enables them to send payments to merchants securely using a variety of funding sources, which include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, its consumer credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products. It operates a global, two-sided network at scale that connects consumers and merchants with 434 million active accounts across approximately 200 markets. Its brands include PayPal, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, Hyperwallet, PayPal Zettle, PayPal Honey, and Paidy. It offers financing products through the PayPal Working Capital (PPWC) and PayPal Business Loan (PPBL).
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Earnings Miss: During the release of its Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings report, PayPal failed to meet consensus estimates for both revenue and profit, further exacerbating investor anxiety regarding the company's performance.
- Stock Price Plunge: Following this news, PayPal's stock price fell as much as 20% during intraday trading on February 3, 2026, closing at $41.03 per share the next day, reflecting a pessimistic outlook from the market on the company's future.
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