PayPal Holdings Q1 Profit Rises - Update

(RTTNews) - Payments technology company PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL), Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the first quarter, as revenues grew 19 reflecting increased payment volumes and number of users. Both earnings and revenues trumped Wall Street analysts estimates.

San Jose, California-based Paypal's first-quarter profit rose to $365 million or $0.30 per share from $255 million or $0.21 per share last year.

Excluding one-time items, adjusted earnings rose to $0.37 per share from $0.29 per share last year. On average, 35 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.35 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

PayPal's revenues for the first quarter grew 19 percent to $2.54 billion from $2.14 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.50 billion for the quarter.

Operating margin improved 90 basis points to 16 percent for the quarter.

In the first quarter, PayPal processed 1.4 billion transactions, up 26 percent and reported $81 billion in total payment volume, representing FX-neutral growth of 31 percent. The company grew its active account base by 4.5 million, ending the quarter with 184 million active customer accounts.

"Our first quarter results continue to demonstrate the power of our global payments platform to attract and engage consumers, increasing our global scale and in turn attracting new merchants and partners to PayPal," said Dan Schulman, President and CEO of PayPal.

Looking forward to the second quarter, PayPal expects adjusted earnings of $0.34 to $0.35 per share on revenues of $2.57 to $2.62 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $0.35 per share on revenues of $2.57 billion for the quarter.

For the full year 2016, the company continues to expect adjusted earnings of $1.45 to $1.50 per share and revenues of $10.5 billion to $10.7 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $1.49 per share on revenues of $10.67 billion for 2016.

PYPL closed Wednesday's trading at $40.01, up $0.28 or 0.70%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further gained $1.09 or 2.72% in the after-hours trade.