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PYPL Shares Slide 31.4% in 6 Months: Should You Buy the Dip or Sell?
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Key Takeaways
PYPL fell 31.4% in six months as macro weakness, FX pressure and rising competition hit growth.
PYPL is expanding AI-driven commerce through Cymbio and partnerships with Microsoft, OpenAI and Perplexity.
Venmo topped 100M accounts, posted 13% TPV growth and expanded global payments to 90 markets.
PayPal Holdings (PYPL - Free Report) stock has plunged 31.4% over the past six months, pummeled by macroeconomic headwinds and fierce competition in digital payments. Additionally, tariff-related pressures have added to near-term volatility.
Rivals like Visa (V - Free Report) and Mastercard (MA - Free Report) are steadily broadening their services, challenging PayPal’s dominance in digital payments. Visa stock has declined 10.7%, while Mastercard has fallen 10.4% in six months.
Investors are now questioning whether PayPal’s struggles represent a deeper problem or an opportunity to buy into a long-term recovery story. Let’s delve deeper into this.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Why Did PYPL Shares Fall? Decoding the Drop
PayPal faces macroeconomic headwinds and operates in a highly competitive global payments industry. Its nature of business makes it vulnerable to foreign exchange fluctuations. In the fourth quarter of 2025, PayPal’s online branded checkout TPV grew only 1% on a currency-neutral basis, down from 5% in the previous quarter. The company highlighted U.S. retail weakness, international headwinds like Germany macro softness, competition and slowdown in high-growth verticals leading to this de-growth.
PayPal’s Strategic Transformation: Building the Next-Gen Ecosystem
Despite the negatives, PayPal has outgrown its roots as a payments company, transforming into a broader commerce platform. Its new "PayPal Links" feature lets users create personalized, one-time links for effortless money transfers via any chat or conversation. This month, it integrated PayPal Payment Links straight into the global visual communication platform, Canva, enabling creators worldwide to turn designs into a seamless checkout experience. These moves cement PayPal's role at the heart of next-generation digital commerce.
PayPal offers dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD). In March 2026, PayPal announced that it is making PYUSD available in 70 markets worldwide in the PayPal account, enabling users to send funds globally, with faster settlement and lower cost than traditional payment methods. In the same month, PayPal USD started engaging with TCS Blockchain, a provider of transportation trade finance, to scale solutions for trucking and transportation companies (carriers). This collaboration enables more carriers to settle freight invoices faster and at lower cost, using blockchain-based digital assets.
Expansion of Agentic Commerce
PayPal is investing in AI-driven e-commerce via “agentic commerce,” where autonomous AI agents help consumers discover, compare and buy products. In January 2026, the company agreed to acquire Cymbio, a platform for multi-channel orchestration that enables brands to sell across agentic platforms and other e-commerce channels. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026.
Moreover, PayPal teamed up with Microsoft to power the launch of Copilot Checkout in Copilot, partnered with OpenAI to enable seamless payments and agentic commerce experiences directly within ChatGPT and also joined forces with Perplexity to enable agentic commerce on the Perplexity Pro platform. With these partnerships, the company is delivering more scalable, secure and intelligent shopping experiences for merchants and consumers.
PYPL’s Venmo Business Drives Growth
Venmo has emerged as the preferred money movement platform for the young, affluent and digitally native consumers. Venmo’s user base is large and growing, with more than 100 million total active accounts. In March 2026, Venmo announced its biggest push yet, rolling out peer-to-peer payments to users worldwide. Now, Venmo app users can seamlessly send and receive funds with hundreds of millions of PayPal customers in 90 markets. This marks Venmo's largest market expansion ever since the app’s launch.
PayPal’s revenue composition has shifted as more consumers are using Venmo for everyday commerce. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Venmo registered its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with Total Payment Volume (“TPV”) rising 13%. Moreover, Venmo is expanding its rewards program, Venmo Stash, designed to give customers a new opportunity to earn cash back on daily purchases from select lifestyle brands.
PayPal Shares Trading Cheap
However, with the decline, PayPal shares are trading cheap, as suggested by the Value Score of A. In terms of forward 12-month P/E, PYPL stock is trading at 9.21X compared with the Zacks Financial Transaction Services industry’s 16.49X.
The stock is also cheaper than competitors, including Visa and Mastercard. Shares of Visa and Mastercard are currently trading at P/E of 22.39X and 24.56X, respectively.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
PYPL’s Estimate Revisions Exhibit Positive Trend
PayPal’s estimate revisions reflect a positive trend for full-year 2026. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PYPL’s 2026 earnings per share has moved a cent upward to $5.32 over the past month.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How to Play the PYPL Stock?
The stock trades at a significant discount compared to its industry multiples and competitors such as Visa and Mastercard, presenting a compelling entry opportunity into this global payment leader.
Although short-term challenges like macroeconomic uncertainty and rising competition persist, PayPal's strategic transformations and partnerships, expansion of agentic commerce and Venmo provide solid grounds for optimism in its recovery path, and positive revisions in earnings estimates reflect that sentiment. The current dip in its price performance seems excessive compared to its solid fundamentals. For long-term investors, PYPL looks more like a buy-the-dip opportunity than a time to exit.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
PYPL Shares Slide 31.4% in 6 Months: Should You Buy the Dip or Sell?
Key Takeaways
PayPal Holdings (PYPL - Free Report) stock has plunged 31.4% over the past six months, pummeled by macroeconomic headwinds and fierce competition in digital payments. Additionally, tariff-related pressures have added to near-term volatility.
Rivals like Visa (V - Free Report) and Mastercard (MA - Free Report) are steadily broadening their services, challenging PayPal’s dominance in digital payments. Visa stock has declined 10.7%, while Mastercard has fallen 10.4% in six months.
Investors are now questioning whether PayPal’s struggles represent a deeper problem or an opportunity to buy into a long-term recovery story. Let’s delve deeper into this.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Why Did PYPL Shares Fall? Decoding the Drop
PayPal faces macroeconomic headwinds and operates in a highly competitive global payments industry. Its nature of business makes it vulnerable to foreign exchange fluctuations. In the fourth quarter of 2025, PayPal’s online branded checkout TPV grew only 1% on a currency-neutral basis, down from 5% in the previous quarter. The company highlighted U.S. retail weakness, international headwinds like Germany macro softness, competition and slowdown in high-growth verticals leading to this de-growth.
PayPal’s Strategic Transformation: Building the Next-Gen Ecosystem
Despite the negatives, PayPal has outgrown its roots as a payments company, transforming into a broader commerce platform. Its new "PayPal Links" feature lets users create personalized, one-time links for effortless money transfers via any chat or conversation. This month, it integrated PayPal Payment Links straight into the global visual communication platform, Canva, enabling creators worldwide to turn designs into a seamless checkout experience. These moves cement PayPal's role at the heart of next-generation digital commerce.
PayPal offers dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD). In March 2026, PayPal announced that it is making PYUSD available in 70 markets worldwide in the PayPal account, enabling users to send funds globally, with faster settlement and lower cost than traditional payment methods. In the same month, PayPal USD started engaging with TCS Blockchain, a provider of transportation trade finance, to scale solutions for trucking and transportation companies (carriers). This collaboration enables more carriers to settle freight invoices faster and at lower cost, using blockchain-based digital assets.
Expansion of Agentic Commerce
PayPal is investing in AI-driven e-commerce via “agentic commerce,” where autonomous AI agents help consumers discover, compare and buy products. In January 2026, the company agreed to acquire Cymbio, a platform for multi-channel orchestration that enables brands to sell across agentic platforms and other e-commerce channels. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026.
Moreover, PayPal teamed up with Microsoft to power the launch of Copilot Checkout in Copilot, partnered with OpenAI to enable seamless payments and agentic commerce experiences directly within ChatGPT and also joined forces with Perplexity to enable agentic commerce on the Perplexity Pro platform. With these partnerships, the company is delivering more scalable, secure and intelligent shopping experiences for merchants and consumers.
PYPL’s Venmo Business Drives Growth
Venmo has emerged as the preferred money movement platform for the young, affluent and digitally native consumers. Venmo’s user base is large and growing, with more than 100 million total active accounts. In March 2026, Venmo announced its biggest push yet, rolling out peer-to-peer payments to users worldwide. Now, Venmo app users can seamlessly send and receive funds with hundreds of millions of PayPal customers in 90 markets. This marks Venmo's largest market expansion ever since the app’s launch.
PayPal’s revenue composition has shifted as more consumers are using Venmo for everyday commerce. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Venmo registered its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with Total Payment Volume (“TPV”) rising 13%. Moreover, Venmo is expanding its rewards program, Venmo Stash, designed to give customers a new opportunity to earn cash back on daily purchases from select lifestyle brands.
PayPal Shares Trading Cheap
However, with the decline, PayPal shares are trading cheap, as suggested by the Value Score of A. In terms of forward 12-month P/E, PYPL stock is trading at 9.21X compared with the Zacks Financial Transaction Services industry’s 16.49X.
The stock is also cheaper than competitors, including Visa and Mastercard. Shares of Visa and Mastercard are currently trading at P/E of 22.39X and 24.56X, respectively.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
PYPL’s Estimate Revisions Exhibit Positive Trend
PayPal’s estimate revisions reflect a positive trend for full-year 2026. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PYPL’s 2026 earnings per share has moved a cent upward to $5.32 over the past month.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How to Play the PYPL Stock?
The stock trades at a significant discount compared to its industry multiples and competitors such as Visa and Mastercard, presenting a compelling entry opportunity into this global payment leader.
Although short-term challenges like macroeconomic uncertainty and rising competition persist, PayPal's strategic transformations and partnerships, expansion of agentic commerce and Venmo provide solid grounds for optimism in its recovery path, and positive revisions in earnings estimates reflect that sentiment. The current dip in its price performance seems excessive compared to its solid fundamentals. For long-term investors, PYPL looks more like a buy-the-dip opportunity than a time to exit.
PayPal currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.