PayPal’s Third-Quarter Results Unconfirmed; Company Page Shows Second-Quarter Statement
Key Facts
PayPal’s announcement of its 2026 third-quarter results could not be verified; when checked, the company’s results page showed the second-quarter statement issued on July 28. As a result, there is no official confirmation of figures attributed to the quarter ended September 30, and they should not be treated as published results. Reuters’ article published ahead of the announcement was a preview of analysts’ expectations and the questions investors were watching, not a report on results that had already been released. In that preview, analysts expected third-quarter earnings of $1.31 per share and revenue of $8.71 billion. Those figures therefore remain pre-announcement estimates, not realized financial results.
Reuters’ preview highlighted investor questions over whether competition could erode the core branded payments business. That comes as PayPal said in its second-quarter results statement that the branded checkout business had "stabilized further" and that it was building on strong momentum at Venmo and Braintree. This context makes it important to watch whether the company provides an update on checkout and the performance of its other services in its next announcement. But second-quarter statements do not provide evidence of third-quarter performance or resolve the questions that preceded the announcement. Competition in branded payments therefore remains a focus of market expectations ahead of the announcement, not a confirmed result for the new period.
Second-quarter results provide a baseline for comparison with earlier third-quarter expectations. PayPal’s second-quarter revenue rose 5% to $8.7 billion, or 3% on a currency-neutral basis, according to the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Reuters reported actual revenue of $8.68 billion for that quarter, above an estimate of $8.47 billion, while earnings per share came in at $1.38 versus a consensus estimate of $1.28. Reuters’ preview used the $8.68 billion second-quarter revenue figure when presenting its third-quarter revenue estimate of $8.71 billion. The comparison shows the gap between the previous quarter’s results and published estimates for the following period, without establishing that PayPal met its third-quarter expectations.
At the operating level, total payment volume in the second quarter rose 10% to $486.4 billion, or 9% on a currency-neutral basis, according to the company’s filing. Transaction margin dollars increased 1% to $3.9 billion, while rising 3% to $3.6 billion excluding interest on customer balances. By contrast, the non-GAAP operating margin contracted 248 basis points to 17.4%. These indicators show a divergence between payment-volume growth and margin trends in the second quarter, making profitability metrics part of the assessment of upcoming results. However, all these figures relate to the second quarter and must not be attributed to the third quarter.
In the second quarter, PayPal returned about $1.5 billion to shareholders by repurchasing about 33 million shares, according to its statement. In its July guidance, the company also raised its full-year non-GAAP earnings-per-share forecast to about $5.38, from a previous range that spanned a slight decline to slight growth. The company’s third-quarter guidance called for a low-single-digit decline in non-GAAP earnings per share, compared with $1.34 in the same period a year earlier. This guidance provides context for the estimates published before the announcement, but does not replace actual third-quarter results. PayPal shares closed at $54.99 on October 26, according to EL7 data; that closing price preceded the expected results announcement, and the data provided no verified details on the daily trading range.