PayPal says May 1 was largest transaction day in its history, but first-quarter results fall short
By Wed, May 6, 2020
Due to an accounting change, Square stated a revised year-ago earnings-per-share number from what it reported a year ago. This article has been updated to replace that figure.
PayPal Holdings Inc. fell short of first-quarter expectations Wednesday as the company felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, but the digital payments pioneer said that trends were improving in April and beyond, as May 1 marked the company’s highest volume transaction day in its history.
The stock was up 3.3% in after-hours trading.
For the first quarter, the company posted net income of $84 million, or 7 cents a share, down from $667 million, or 56 cents a share, in the year-prior quarter.
PayPal PYPL, +2.29% said in its release that the GAAP earnings per share number includes a 17-cent negative impact from a credit reserve the company is taking due to the macroeconomic climate through the Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) standard. It also includes a 22-cent negative impact from taxes related to its Honey acquisition and a 7-cent impact from strategic losses, primarily related to its investment in MercadoLibre Inc. MELI, +19.63% .
Adjusted earnings per share came in flat at 66 cents, but the company said in its release that the number also includes the 17-cent negative impact from CECL.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting 75 cents.
Revenue for the quarter increased to $4.62 billion from $4.13 billion. The FactSet consensus called for $4.74 billion.
PayPal processed $191 billion in payment volume during the quarter, up from $161.5 billion in the prior March quarter, while analysts were calling for $195.2 billion. PayPal processed $56 billion in peer-to-peer volume and $31 billion in Venmo volume.
The company processed $68 billion in total payment volume in April, up 22% on a year-over-year basis. Revenue rose about 20% on a currency-neutral basis in April, the company said.
“I would argue that April was probably the strongest month for PayPal since we became a public company,” Chief Executive Dan Schulman told MarketWatch.
The company added 10 million net new active accounts in the quarter for its core platform and added 10.2 million from Honey. PayPal added 7.4 million net new active accounts in April, a new monthly record. May 1 marked the company’s largest single day of transactions in its history, beating out last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
For the second quarter, PayPal expects 15% revenue growth on a currency-neutral basis and 15% growth in adjusted earnings per share. It also projects 15 million to 20 million net new active accounts for the quarter.
PayPal’s report follows that of Shopify Inc. SHOP, +6.91% earlier in the day. Shopify posted a surprise adjusted profit, saw volume growth accelerate in April, and said in its release that the COVID-19 outbreak “accelerated the shift of purchase habits to e-commerce.”
PayPal shares have increased 7.5% in the past three months as the S&P 500 SPX, -0.69% has lost 14%.
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