PayPal's Disappointing Q4 Results Lead to Stock Plunge
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 2d ago
0mins
Should l Buy PYPL?
Source: stocktwits
- Stock Plunge: PayPal's shares fell 20% following disappointing Q4 results announced on February 3, with a cumulative drop of over 30% in the subsequent 10 trading days, reflecting strong market concerns about its financial performance.
- Investor Sentiment: Despite the ongoing decline in stock price, retail investor sentiment on Stocktwits remains in the 'extremely bullish' territory, indicating optimism about PayPal's long-term potential, particularly due to its low P/E ratio of 7.59 and strong free cash flow.
- Earnings Snapshot: PayPal reported Q4 revenue of $8.68 billion, a 4% year-over-year increase but below the $8.79 billion estimate, with adjusted earnings of $1.23 per share also missing expectations of $1.29, highlighting execution challenges within the company.
- Analyst Rating Adjustments: Wells Fargo cut PayPal's price target from $67 to $48, while UBS lowered its target from $65 to $44, both citing company-specific execution issues that could impact future profitability.
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Analyst Views on PYPL
Wall Street analysts forecast PYPL stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for PYPL is 72.86 USD with a low forecast of 51.00 USD and a high forecast of 100.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
29 Analyst Rating
6 Buy
19 Hold
4 Sell
Hold
Current: 39.900
Low
51.00
Averages
72.86
High
100.00
Current: 39.900
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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- Revenue Growth Momentum: In Q4 2025, American Express generated $9.9 billion in revenue from merchants and $2.6 billion in card membership fees, indicating strong financial performance, with double-digit growth expected to continue into 2026.
- Young Customer Demographics: As of Q4, millennials and Gen Z now represent the largest share of U.S. consumer spending and are the fastest-growing cohorts, providing strong support for American Express's future growth prospects.
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