PayPal (NASDAQ:$PYPL) has surged more than 60% this year. This has been fueled by a streak of double-digit sales and earnings growth at the online payments platform provider. The question now is, with the stock hovering near all-time highs, is it too late for investors to jump on the bandwagon? To get the answers, let’s take a look at PayPal’s growth rates, tailwinds, headwinds, and valuation.
In the last quarter alone, PayPal’s total active users increased by 12%, to 210 million. Total transactions jumped 23% to 1.8 billion, and each active account logged an average of 32.3 transactions over the past 12 months- a 10% jump. Total payment volume rose 23% year-over-year, and total revenue rose 18% to $3.14 billion.
Analysts are predicting for PayPal’s revenue and earnings to respectively rise 19% and 23% for the rest of the year if the transaction volume continues its current trend.
Tailwinds
Thanks to its recent acquisitions, PayPal has a brand new selling point of seeing diverse payment platforms beyond the conventional email. Such acquisitions included Braintree, which owns the peer-to-peer payments app Venmo, the mobile wallet start-up Paydiant, the overseas remittance provider Xoom, and the cloud-based multichannel bill payment processor TIO Networks.
All these moves stabilize PayPal’s footing in the mobile payments market. In facts, its competitors, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), Visa, and Bank of America (NASDAQ:$BOA) all recently signed payment partnerships with Paypal rather than competing against it.
Headwinds
Paypal’s biggest competitor left is Apple’s (NASDAQ:$AAPL) Apple Pay. Due to Apple’s heavy marketing for the use of its payment service on all iPhones and Apple Watches, many vendors have installed NFC terminals to accept Apple Pay. The number of Apple Pay users have tripled over the past year, processing over “billions” of transactions during the most recent quarter. That is a 500% volume surge.
Valuation
In a simple sentence: PayPal is trading at 52x earnings, which is much higher than the industry average P/E of 24 for credit services companies.
Verdict
While PayPal’s business model sets it up for long-term growth, investors seeking a short-term return might want to hold off due to its current lofty valuation.
Featured Image: twitter
