PayPal quarterly profit beats estimates, shares rise

NEW YORK - PayPal Holdings Inc on Thursday reported a third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as the company signed up more new customers and volume of payments processed rose.

Net income rose to $436 million, or 36 cents per share, in the third quarter, from $380 million, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $3.68 billion from $3.24 billion.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 58 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 54 cents, according to Refinitiv.

For the fourth quarter, PayPal expects revenue between $4.20 billion and $4.28 billion, in line with analysts’ estimates of $4.21 billion estimate.

Shares of the company, which separated from ecommerce site eBay Inc in 2015, were up 7 percent in trading after the bell on Thursday.

In September it completed the purchase of Swedish payments firm iZettle, its largest ever acquisition.

“As pleased as I am with our financials, the highlight of the quarter was our growth in net new actives and engagement,” PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman said on a call with analysts.

The company added a record 9.1 million new active accounts in the third quarter, compared to an increase of 8.2 million a year earlier.

PayPal processed $143 billion in payments over the period, up 24 percent from a year earlier.

Venmo, its peer-to-peer payment app popular with younger consumers, processed $17 billion of payments in the third quarter, growing 78 percent.

“And while it is still early, our monetization efforts appear to be reaching a tipping point,” Schulman said.

He added that 24 percent of Venmo users have now participated in a “monetisable action,” up from 17 percent last quarter.