By Sabela Ojea


PayPal said profit rose in the latest quarter, boosted by higher revenue and payment volumes, and raised its outlook for the year.

The digital-payments company on Tuesday posted a first-quarter net income of $888 million, or 83 cents a share, compared with $795 million, or 70 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast earnings of 78 cents per share.

Stripping out one-time items, PayPal's earnings per share came in at $1.08, as the company now includes the effect of stock-based compensation and employer-payroll-related taxes in this financial metric.

Revenue rose 9.3%, to $7.7 billion, beating analysts expectations of $7.51 billion, according to FactSet. The company had most recently guided for growth in the range of 6.5% to 7%.

PayPal logged total payment volume of $403.86 billion, up 14% from the year-ago period, and down from $409.83 billion in the fourth quarter. Payment transactions increased 11%, to 6.5 billion, but fell from 6.8 billion in the prior quarter.

Total active accounts decreased 1%, to $427 million, and increased by 0.4% on a sequential basis.

"2024 remains a transition year and we are focused on execution--driving our key strategic initiatives, realizing cost savings, and reinvesting appropriately to position the company for consistent, high-quality profitable growth in the future," Chief Executive Alex Chriss said.

For 2024 as a whole, PayPal now expects earnings per share of $3.65, ahead of the $3.60 previously guided and representing a decline from reported earnings per share of $3.84 in 2023.


Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-30-24 0746ET