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PayPal beats Q2 2021 earnings estimates, misses on revenue

Company’s shares drop 8% after announcement

Paypal added 11.4 million net new active accounts (Photo: Paypal)

Total second-quarter revenue jumped 19% year-over-year for PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), falling slightly short of analyst expectations. The company’s shares saw an 8% drop after the close.

The company said net revenue was $6.24 billion and total payment volume (TPV) increased 40% to $311 billion, compared to $222 million in Q2 2020. Transaction revenues increased 17% year-over-year to $5.8 billion, and revenues from other value-added services were $441 million as of June 30, up 40% from $316 million on June 30, 2020.

PayPal is an e-commerce company operating a global online payment system. In its earnings, released Wednesday after the bell, the company said its outlook for the remainder of 2021 remains largely unchanged, other than some raised expectations for TPV.

“On the heels of a record year, we continued to drive strong results in the second quarter, reflecting some of the best performance in our history,” said President and CEO Dan Schulman. “Our platform now supports 403 million active accounts, with an annualized TPV run rate of approximately $1.25 trillion. Clearly PayPal has evolved into an essential service in the emerging digital economy.”



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PayPal reported 11.4 million net new active accounts (NNAs), bringing its total to 403 million active accounts as of June 30. PayPal’s Venmo service checked in with 76 million active accounts, up 6 million from six months ago, when that figure was first reported.

The company posted second-quarter net income of $1.18 billion, or $1 per diluted share, down from $1.53 billion, or $1.29 per diluted share, a year earlier. That number dipped slightly to $1.15 per diluted share after adjustments, up from $1.07 per diluted share a year prior and above the FactSet consensus, which called for $1.12 per diluted share.

Operating income for the second quarter of 2021 was $1.13 billion versus income of $951 million for the comparable period a year ago. Adjusted operating income for Q2 2021 was $236.8 million versus $113.7 million in Q2 2020.

“PayPal sits at the intersection of transformative secular tailwinds and is uniquely positioned to address the massive opportunity in digital payments,” said John Rainey, CFO and EVP of global customer operations. “We are reporting another strong quarter — indicative of the strength, diversification and breadth of our two-sided platform.”


2021 outlook

While its outlook for the remainder of the year is mostly unchanged, PayPal does expect to see continued growth.

Payment transactions were up 27% to 4.7 billion, and while PayPal’s eBay Marketplaces volume declined by a sizable 37% on a spot basis, it saw offsetting growth in its merchant services volume, up 48%.

During the remainder of FY 2021, PayPal expects revenue to grow at a rate of around 20% and EPS to reach $3.49 per diluted share.  The company anticipates 52 million-55 million NNAs added.

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Jack Daleo

Jack Daleo is a staff writer for Flying Magazine covering advanced air mobility, including everything from drones to unmanned aircraft systems to space travel — and a whole lot more. He spent close to two years reporting on drone delivery for FreightWaves, covering the biggest news and developments in the space and connecting with industry executives and experts. Jack is also a basketball aficionado, a frequent traveler and a lover of all things logistics.