Is PayPal Poised for a Bull Run in 2023?
Digital payments pioneer PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) posted third-quarter revenue of $6.8 billion (up 11% year over year) and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.08 (down 2%) that both beat Wall Street analyst estimates. And the shares are up about 9% since the announcement on Nov. 3.
But despite the recent positive performance, the fintech stock is down 54% in 2022, worse than the S&P 500's 17% drop this year. Investors might be eyeing PayPal as a potential recovery play in 2023. Here's why the stock might be ready to bounce back -- and not just next year, but over the long term.
PayPal's business was firing on all cylinders throughout 2020 and 2021 as e-commerce and electronic payments took off thanks to the pandemic forcing people to spend more time at home, leading to a change in shopping behavior. But unsurprisingly, PayPal is starting to experience a slowdown as consumer return to past shopping patterns. The company's user base, now at 432 million, is up just 4% from the third quarter last year. This was after the business gained a total of 121 million active accounts in 2020 and 2021. PayPal is only expected to add about 9 million net new active accounts this year. Because of this, the management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman, walked back its goal of hitting 750 million active accounts by 2025.
Source Fool.com
