Why Are PayPal (PYPL) Shares Soaring Today

What Happened?

Shares of digital payments platform PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) jumped 10.8% in the morning session after the company reported third-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street's expectations for both revenue and profit. 

The digital payments giant posted revenue of $8.42 billion, up 7.3% from the prior year, driven by strong growth in total payment volume, which climbed 8.4% to $458.1 billion. Both figures came in ahead of analyst forecasts. Profitability was also a key highlight, with adjusted earnings per share of $1.34, beating consensus estimates by a significant 11.2%. Furthermore, the company's adjusted earnings guidance for the full year also topped market expectations, signaling operational strength. PayPal also announced it will be issuing its first-ever quarterly dividend. Separately, the company announced a major partnership with OpenAI, which will integrate PayPal as a payment method within ChatGPT. This combination of strategic AI integration, strong financial performance, and increased shareholder returns drove the stock significantly higher.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

PayPal’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 12 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for PayPal and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 21 days ago when the stock gained 4.5% on the news that the company launched PayPal Ads Manager, a new service designed to help tens of millions of small businesses create their own advertising networks. 

This new tool let small businesses use their store traffic to generate revenue from ads with no upfront costs. The platform planned to use PayPal's extensive payment data to help create new ad spaces for brands. The service was set to be available in the United States in early 2026, with plans to expand to the United Kingdom and Germany later. The news was met with optimism, as some analysts had previously pointed to PayPal's advertising business as a promising source of future revenue. Adding to the positive sentiment, the company also revealed a partnership with India's national payments system, UPI, to make international payments easier for users.

PayPal is down 10.5% since the beginning of the year, and at $77.13 per share, it is trading 16% below its 52-week high of $91.81 from January 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of PayPal’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $401.12.

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