PayPal lets you tap fast-growing markets

Article Excerpt

PAYPAL HOLDINGS INC. $104 (Nasdaq symbol PYPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $124.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.5; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.paypal.com) took its current form on July 1, 2015 when online auction company eBay Inc. (Nasdaq symbol EBAY) spun it off. Investors received one PayPal share for each eBay share they held. The company processes online transactions on millions of websites, including purchases made on eBay. It has recently expanded into physical stores and mobile payments. New businesses helped spur its growth As a separate firm, PayPal’s revenue soared 67.1%, from $9.25 billion in 2015 to $15.45 billion in 2018. The higher revenue is partly due to acquisitions. In May 2018, the company bought iZettle AB for $2.2 billion. Based in Sweden, that firm makes equipment and software to let merchants accept credit- and debit-card payments. PayPal completed two more acquisitions in 2018: it paid $400 million for Hyperwallet, which makes software to helps merchants and…