PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) saw its shares drop in pre-market trading on Thursday, even though the online payments company’s fourth-quarter results – released after-hours on Wednesday - beat expectations, hit by news former parent eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) has signed a deal with a new primary payment processor.
Nasdaq-listed PayPal reported fourth-quarter net income of US$620mln, or 50 US cents a share, up from US$390mln, or 32 cents a share a year earlier, and above the consensus forecast for 48 US cents a share.
Its quarterly revenue rose to US$3.74bn, up from US$2.98bn a year earlier, and also above forecasts of US$3.63bn.
The group said it expects first-quarter earnings of 41 US cents to 43 US cents a share on sales of US$3.58bn to US$3.63bn, just a touch higher than consensus forecasts for earning of 40 US cents a share on revenue of US$3.55 billion.
But the firm noted that, as a percentage of total payment volume, eBay usage shrank to 13% from 16% a year ago earlier, and although PayPal said it had inked a deal with eBay that will see the online marketplace continue to make the group a payment method through to July 2023, eBay announced that it will also start processing payments globally using Dutch payments company Adyen.
PayPal was spun out of eBay in 2015.
After falling more than 3.3% after-hours, PayPal shares were 8.5% lower in pre-market trading at US$78.04. eBay shares were up 11% at US$45.10.