PayPal is due to report first-quarter financial results on May 5 before the market opens, and investors are heading into the update with low expectations. Pypl stock has been priced as if little growth is coming, even after a quarter in which the company posted modest gains across several core measures.
In the fourth quarter, revenue increased 3.7% from a year earlier to $8.68 billion, while earnings per share, excluding certain items, advanced 3% to $1.23. Transaction margin rose 3% to $4.03 billion. Active accounts inched up 1% and payment transactions increased 2%. Even with those improvements, analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings per share to have fallen 4.5% year over year, while sales are projected to rise 3.4%.
That puts the upcoming report in a different light from the usual quarterly check-in. PayPal’s shares carry a market value of $43.38 billion and trade at 9.5 times trailing earnings, with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 9.4. The company entered the year under pressure after disappointing in many respects in the fourth quarter, and the next results will show whether the business is stabilizing or slipping into a slower pattern as consumer spending weakens.
The company has also been trying to reset the story around who runs it and where the next growth may come from. In February, PayPal named Enrique Lores as its new chief executive after he led HP from November 2019 until February 2026, and it appointed Anshu Bhardwaj as chief AI transformation and simplification officer. Bhardwaj previously led Walmart’s Commerce Technologies unit. The moves came as PayPal was being framed as a business that could benefit from greater use of artificial intelligence and from a change at the top.
At the same time, the company has been linked to strategic interest from outside buyers. reported in February that a number of firms were interested in buying parts or all of PayPal, and the company is reportedly looking to fend off those overtures. One option that has surfaced is a possible spin-off of Venmo, which has been growing much faster than the rest of the business. Venmo revenue jumped 20% in 2025, and total payments volume climbed 13% year over year in the fourth quarter.
For now, the stock looks as though it is being valued for caution rather than momentum. The question after May 5 is not whether PayPal can produce another quarter of modest gains. It is whether those gains are enough to convince investors that pypl stock deserves something more than a bargain multiple.
