Results and guidance
PayPal raised its 2026 adjusted earnings outlook to roughly $5.60 per share, compared with the $5.38 it outlined in July. Management said the strategic reset underway is beginning to flow through the numbers.
For the third quarter, adjusted profit reached $1.45 per share, topping the $1.31 analyst consensus, while revenue of $8.58 billion trailed the $8.71 billion estimate. Transaction margin dollars - what PayPal pockets from processing after related costs - totaled $3.95 billion, beating the $3.89 billion forecast. Total payment volume rose 6.3% year over year to $487.1 billion.
Strategy, deals, and market reaction
This has been a year of churn: the board removed the prior CEO, takeover talks surfaced and were later shelved, and new CEO Enrique Lores kicked off a sweeping reorg. In a shareholder update, the company said it is broadening beyond checkout and "rebalancing" toward "high-value consumers."
"We are beginning to see our strategy translate into our financial results, with strong contributions from our key growth areas and increasing diversification," Lores said Tuesday. On the M&A front, he told analysts, "We have been and will be open to analyze objectively any option that is presented to us, and we will always choose the alternative that will create more shareholder value," adding that deals must align with strategy and make financial sense.
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In August, Bloomberg said a group that included buyout firm Advent and payments company Stripe dropped its bid to go after PayPal after previously floating an offer exceeding $50 billion. The company's market value stands at $47 billion. At 9:36 a.m. in New York, the stock showed a gain of 1.7% and is down 5.1% for the year.
Costs, headcount, and the investor take
Lores said PayPal headcount has come down by more than 2,000. Miller said management roles were trimmed by over a quarter, and she noted the effect of European tariffs will continue to weigh on fourth-quarter results.
The bottom line: guidance is moving higher and key profitability metrics beat, but top line lagged and near-term tariff pressure lingers. For your portfolio, that mix points to an execution story with watch items in revenue and international costs.
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