PayPal just saw a major slowdown on a metric that's closely watched by investors. Soon HP veteran Enrique Lores will be tasked with trying to turn the company around.
PayPal Holdings just reported a sharp slowdown on a key metric and announced a leadership shift, sending its stock lower in Tuesday's premarket action.
Enrique Lores will become PayPal's (PYPL) CEO on March 1, succeeding Alex Chriss. "While some progress has been made in a number of areas over the last two years, the pace of change and execution was not in line with the board's expectations," the company said in a release.
Lores comes to PayPal from HP and said he would "accelerate the delivery of new innovations and to shape the future of digital payments and commerce."
PayPal on Tuesday posted just 1% growth in fourth-quarter payment volume for its branded checkout business, after adjusting for currency. That growth rate was below the 8% clip seen in both the second and third quarters. Branded checkout includes things like the core PayPal checkout button, and is a generally more profitable business than the company's unbranded option, which is why it's such a focus for investors.
In a shareholder presentation, PayPal attributed the deceleration to "weakness in U.S. retail, international headwinds and tough compares in high-growth verticals," a reference to the idea that the year-earlier numbers set a high bar.
PayPal also outlined the various tactics it will use as it tries to reignite growth of the branded business. These include focusing on "a modern checkout experience that is fast, intuitive and consistent," getting more customers to use biometrics for checkout, making sure PayPal payment options are "competitively" surfaced during a customer's transaction journey and leaning into rewards.
PayPal shares were down 18% in Tuesday trading. HP Inc shares were down 7%.
PayPal's profit guidance for the first quarter came up short of the consensus view. The company expects adjusted earnings per share to fall by a "mid-single-digit" rate from the $1.33 figure reported a year ago. The FactSet consensus of $1.38 implies that investors were anticipating growth on the metric.
For the full year, PayPal expects adjusted earnings per share in the range of a "low-single-digit decline to slightly positive" growth. Analysts were looking for $5.74, up about 8% from what PayPal ended up posting for 2025.
The company said it's taking strides to diversify its business. PayPal's Pay With Venmo and buy-now-pay-later offerings are winning market share, according to the investor presentation. And what the company now refers to as PSP, the part of the business that includes unbranded checkout, is now contributing to growth on a key profit metric after PayPal recalibrated the business to focus on relatively more profitable volume.
Overall payment volume for the fourth quarter amounted to $475 billion in the fourth quarter and was up 6% on a currency-neutral basis. Revenue came in at $8.68 billion, up 3% after currency adjustments, while analysts were modeling $8.79 billion. And adjusted EPS was $1.23, up 3% from a year before but below the $1.29 consensus view.