Paypal reports first quarter 2019 results
San jose, calif.--(business wire)--global technology platform and digital payments leader paypal holdings, inc. (nasdaq: pypl) today announced first quarter results for the period ended march 31, 2019. “we had a great start to the year, with strong growth in revenue, net new active accounts and engagement across our platform. we launched new strategic relationships with some of the world’s largest marketplaces and platforms including instagram and mercadolibre. we now have 277 million customer accounts, including 22 million merchant accounts and over 40 million active venmo accounts. we are confident in the 2019 targets we outlined last quarter as we continue to leverage our wide range of unique assets in our global digital payments platform,” said dan schulman, president and ceo of paypal. financial highlights for first quarter 2019 revenue of $4.13 billion; growing 12% on both a spot and foreign currency-neutral (fx-neutral or fxn) basis the completion of the sale of the u.s. consumer credit receivables portfolio to synchrony in july 2018 negatively affected revenue growth by approximately seven percentage points. the completion of the sale of the u.s. consumer credit receivables portfolio to synchrony in july 2018 negatively affected revenue growth by approximately seven percentage points. gaap operating margin of 12.5% with non-gaap operating margin of 22.6%. gaap eps of $0.56, increasing 34%; non-gaap eps of $0.78, increasing 37%. includes $0.08 benefit related to paypal's strategic investment in mercadolibre (nasdaq: meli). includes $0.08 benefit related to paypal's strategic investment in mercadolibre (nasdaq: meli). repurchased 7.7 million shares of common stock, returning $750 million to stockholders. operating highlights for first quarter 2019 9.3 million net new active accounts, versus an increase of 8.1 million in q1 2018, up 15%. 2.8 billion payment transactions, up 28%. $161 billion in total payment volume (tpv), up 22%, or 25% on an fx-neutral basis. 37.9 payment transactions per active account on a trailing twelve months basis, up 9%. paypal's key business drivers merchant services volume grew 29% on an fx-neutral basis. ebay marketplaces volume declined 4% on an fx-neutral basis versus growth of 6% in q1 2018, representing 9.7% of tpv for the quarter versus 12.7% a year ago. person-to-person (p2p) volume grew 41% to $42 billion, representing 26% of tpv. venmo processed $21 billion of tpv in the first quarter, growing 73%. paypal's partnerships and strategic investments during the first quarter, paypal announced a partnership with instagram. payments related to instagram’s new checkout experience for shopping will be processed in partnership with paypal. as part of paypal’s partnership with jpmorgan chase, the consumer rollout of instant transfer to bank was announced, giving paypal’s customers more ways to instantly access their money. in addition, paypal made a $750 million strategic investment in mercadolibre, an e-commerce and payments leader in latin america. in conjunction, paypal and mercadolibre announced plans to enter into a commercial agreement establishing initiatives to strengthen both companies’ networks. first quarter 2019 financial and operating highlights first quarter 2019 2018 yoy growth fx-neutralyoy growth cash, cash equivalents and investments - paypal’s cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $9.5 billion as of march 31, 2019. short-term borrowings - paypal’s notes payable totaled $2.0 billion as of march 31, 2019. 2019 financial guidance full year 2019 revenue and earnings guidance paypal expects revenue to grow 16 - 17% at current spot rates and 16 - 17% on an fx-neutral basis, to a range of $17.850 - $18.100 billion. as previously disclosed, full year 2019 revenue growth guidance includes an expected decline of approximately 3.5 percentage points for full year 2019 related to the sale of u.s. consumer credit receivables to synchrony. paypal expects gaap earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.97 - $2.05 and non-gaap earnings per diluted share in the range of $2.94 - $3.01. eps guidance for full year 2019 includes $0.08 of unrealized gains from paypal's strategic investment in mercadolibre recognized in q1 2019 and an approximate $0.01 of expected net unrealized gains related to paypal's strategic investment portfolio in q2 2019. estimated non-gaap amounts above for the twelve months ending december 31, 2019, reflect adjustments of approximately $1.30 - $1.40 billion, primarily representing estimated stock-based compensation expense and related payroll taxes in the range of $1.05 - $1.11 billion. estimated gaap and non-gaap results include approximately 1.5 points of revenue growth and $0.08 to $0.10 of dilution from the acquisitions that closed in 2018. second quarter 2019 revenue and earnings guidance paypal expects revenue to grow 11 - 13% at current spot rates and 12 - 13% on an fx-neutral basis, to a range of $4.30 - $4.34 billion. as previously disclosed, q2 2019 revenue growth guidance includes an expected decline of approximately 7 percentage points for the quarter related to the sale of u.s. consumer credit receivables to synchrony. paypal expects gaap earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.50 - $0.52 and non-gaap earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.68 - $0.70. eps guidance for second quarter 2019 includes an approximate $0.01 of expected net unrealized gains related to paypal's strategic investment portfolio in q2 2019. estimated non-gaap amounts above for the three months ending june 30, 2019, reflect adjustments of approximately $300 - $330 million, primarily representing estimated stock-based compensation expense and related payroll taxes in the range of $250 - $265 million. estimated gaap and non-gaap results include approximately 1.5 points of revenue growth and approximately $0.02 - $0.03 of dilution from the acquisitions that closed in 2018. please see "non-gaap financial measures" and "non-gaap measures of financial performance" for important additional information. quarterly conference call and webcast paypal holdings, inc. will host a conference call to discuss first quarter 2019 results at 2:00 p.m. pacific time today. a live webcast of the conference call, together with a slide presentation that includes supplemental financial information and reconciliations of certain non-gaap measures to their most directly comparable gaap measures, can be accessed through the company's investor relations website at https://investor.paypal-corp.com. in addition, an archive of the webcast will be accessible for 90 days through the same link. paypal holdings, inc. uses its investor relations website (https://investor.paypal-corp.com), its paypal stories blog (https://www.paypal.com/stories/us), twitter handles (@paypal and @paypalnews), linkedin page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/paypal), facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/paypalusa/), youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/paypal), dan schulman’s linkedin profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-schulman/), john rainey's linkedin profile (www.linkedin.com/in/john-rainey-pypl), bill ready's linkedin profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamready/) and dan schulman’s facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/danschulmanpaypal/) as a means of disclosing information about the company and for complying with its disclosure obligations under regulation fd. the information that is posted through these channels may be deemed material. accordingly, investors should monitor these channels in addition to paypal’s press releases, sec filings, public conference calls and webcasts. about paypal fueled by a fundamental belief that having access to financial services creates opportunity, paypal holdings, inc. (nasdaq: pypl) is committed to democratizing financial services and empowering people and businesses to join and thrive in the global economy. our open digital payments platform gives paypal’s 277 million active account holders the confidence to connect and transact in new and powerful ways, whether they are online, on a mobile device, in an app, or in person. through a combination of technological innovation and strategic partnerships, paypal creates better ways to manage and move money, and offers choice and flexibility when sending payments, paying or getting paid. available in more than 200 markets around the world, the paypal platform, including braintree, venmo, xoom and izettle, enables consumers and merchants to receive money in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds in 56 currencies and hold balances in their paypal accounts in 25 currencies. for more information on paypal, visit https://www.paypal.com/about. for paypal holdings, inc. financial information, visit https://investor.paypal-corp.com. presentation all growth rates represent year-over-year comparisons, except as otherwise noted. fx-neutral results are calculated by translating the current period local currency results by the prior period exchange rate. fx-neutral growth rates are calculated by comparing the current period fx-neutral results with the prior period results, excluding the impact from hedging activities. all amounts in tables are presented in u.s. dollars, rounded to the nearest millions, except as otherwise noted. as a result, certain amounts and rates may not sum or recalculate using the rounded dollar amounts provided. non-gaap financial measures this press release includes financial measures defined as “non-gaap financial measures” by the securities and exchange commission (sec) including: non-gaap revenues, non-gaap net income, non-gaap earnings per diluted share, non-gaap operating income, non-gaap operating margin, non-gaap effective tax rate, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow. for an explanation of the foregoing non-gaap measures, please see “non-gaap measures of financial performance” included in this press release. these measures may be different from non-gaap financial measures used by other companies. the presentation of this financial information, which is not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles, is not intended to be considered in isolation of, or as a substitute for, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (gaap). for a reconciliation of these non-gaap financial measures to the most directly comparable gaap measures, see “non-gaap measures of financial performance,” “reconciliation of gaap net revenues to non-gaap net revenues,” “reconciliation of gaap operating margin to non-gaap operating margin,” “reconciliation of gaap net income to non-gaap net income, gaap diluted eps to non-gaap diluted eps and gaap effective tax rate to non-gaap effective tax rate,” and “reconciliation of operating cash flow to free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow.” forward-looking statements this press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, the future results of operations, financial condition, expectations and plans of paypal holdings, inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries that reflect paypal’s current projections and forecasts. forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” "strategy," "future," "opportunity," “plan,” “project,” “forecast” and other similar expressions. forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding projected financial results for the second quarter and full year 2019, impact and timing of acquisitions, and projected future growth of paypal’s businesses. forward-looking statements are based upon various estimates and assumptions, as well as information known to paypal as of the date of this press release, and are inherently subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. accordingly, actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied by forward-looking statements. factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: the effect of political, business, economic, market and trade conditions, including any regional or general economic downturn or crisis and any conditions that affect payments or e-commerce growth; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; the competitive, regulatory, payment card association-related and other risks specific to the paypal, paypal credit, braintree, venmo, xoom, izettle, and other products, especially as paypal continues to expand geographically and introduce new products and as new laws and regulations related to payments and financial services come into effect; the impact of paypal's customer choice initiatives, including on its funding mix and transaction expense; paypal’s ability to successfully compete in an increasingly competitive environment for its businesses, products and services, including competition for consumers and merchants and the increasing importance of mobile payments and mobile commerce; the outcome of legal and regulatory proceedings and paypal's need and ability to manage regulatory, tax and litigation risks as its products and services are offered in more jurisdictions and applicable laws become more restrictive; changes to paypal's capital allocation or management of operating cash; uncertainty surrounding the implementation and impact of the united kingdom's formal notification of its intent to withdraw from the european union; cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities in paypal products and services that could disrupt business, reduce revenue, increase costs, harm us competitively, or lead to liability; the effect of management changes and business initiatives; any changes paypal may make to its product offerings; the effect of any natural disasters or other business interruptions on paypal or paypal's customers; paypal's ability to timely upgrade and develop its technology systems, infrastructure and customer service capabilities at reasonable cost; paypal's ability to maintain the stability, security and performance of its payment platform while adding new products and features in a timely fashion; the risk that paypal may not realize the expected benefits of the sale of u.s. consumer credit receivables to synchrony financial; risks that planned acquisitions will not be completed on contemplated terms, or at all, and that any businesses paypal may acquire may not perform in accordance with its expectations; the timing and possible outcome of the uk competition and markets authority’s review and investigation of the acquisition of izettle; and paypal's ability to profitably integrate, manage and grow businesses that have been acquired or may be acquired in the future. the forward-looking statements in this release do not include the potential impact of any acquisitions or divestitures that may be announced and/or completed after the date hereof. more information about factors that could adversely affect paypal's results of operations, financial condition and prospects or that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements is included under the captions “risk factors” and “management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations” in paypal’s most recent annual report on form 10-k and its subsequent quarterly reports on form 10-q, copies of which may be obtained by visiting paypal's investor relations website at https://investor.paypal-corp.com or the sec's website at www.sec.gov. all information in this release speaks as of april 24, 2019. for the reasons discussed above, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this press release. paypal assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements. copyright © 1999-2019 paypal. all rights reserved. other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. total current liabilities paypal holdings, inc.unaudited summary of consolidated net revenues we earn revenue from the following types of transactions: transaction revenues: net transaction fees charged to merchants and consumers on a transaction basis primarily based on the volume of activity, or total payment volume ("tpv"), completed on our payments platform, including our paypal, paypal credit, venmo, braintree, xoom, and izettle products. other value added services: net revenues derived primarily from revenue earned through partnerships, subscription fees, gateway fees, and other services we provide to our merchants and customers. we also earn revenues from interest and fees earned primarily on our paypal credit portfolio of loans receivable, gain on sale of participation interest in certain loans and advances and interest earned on certain paypal customer account balances. paypal holdings, inc.non-gaap measures of financial performance to supplement the company's condensed consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or gaap, the company uses non-gaap measures of certain components of financial performance. these non-gaap measures include non-gaap revenues, non-gaap net income, non-gaap net income per diluted share, non-gaap operating income, non-gaap operating margin, non-gaap effective tax rate, free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow. these non-gaap measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with gaap and may be different from non-gaap measures used by other companies. in addition, these non-gaap measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. non-gaap measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with the company's results of operations as determined in accordance with gaap. these measures should only be used to evaluate the company's results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding gaap measures. reconciliation to the most directly comparable gaap measure of all non-gaap measures included in this press release can be found in the tables included in this press release. these non-gaap measures are provided to enhance investors' overall understanding of the company's current financial performance and its prospects for the future. specifically, the company believes the non-gaap measures provide useful information to both management and investors by excluding certain expenses, gains and losses, as the case may be, that may not be indicative of its core operating results and business outlook. in addition, because the company has historically reported certain non-gaap results to investors, the company believes that the inclusion of non-gaap measures provides consistency in the company's financial reporting. for its internal budgeting process, and as discussed further below, the company's management uses financial measures that do not include stock-based compensation expense, employer payroll taxes on stock-based compensation, amortization or impairment of acquired intangible assets, impairment of goodwill, restructuring-related charges, certain other gains, losses, benefits or charges that are not indicative of the company's core operating results and the income taxes associated with the foregoing. in addition to the corresponding gaap measures, the company's management also uses the foregoing non-gaap measures in reviewing the financial results of the company. the company excludes the following items from non-gaap net income, non-gaap net income per diluted share, non-gaap operating income, non-gaap operating margin and non-gaap effective tax rate: stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes. this consists of expenses for equity awards under our equity incentive plans. we exclude stock-based compensation expense from our non-gaap measures primarily because they are non-cash expenses. the related employer payroll taxes are dependent on our stock price and the timing and size of exercises and vesting of equity awards, over which management has limited to no control, and as such management does not believe it correlates to the operation of our business. amortization or impairment of acquired intangible assets, impairment of goodwill, and transaction expenses from the acquisition or disposal of a business. we incur amortization or impairment of acquired intangible assets and goodwill in connection with acquisitions and may incur significant gains or losses or transactional expenses from the acquisition or disposal of a business and therefore exclude these amounts from our non-gaap measures. we exclude these items because management does not believe they are reflective of our ongoing operating results. restructuring. these consist of expenses for employee severance and other exit and disposal costs. the company excludes significant restructuring charges primarily because management does not believe they are reflective of ongoing operating results. certain other significant gains, losses, benefits, or charges that are not indicative of the company’s core operating results. these are significant gains, losses, benefits, or charges during a period that are the result of isolated events or transactions which have not occurred frequently in the past and are not expected to occur regularly in the future. the company excludes these amounts from its non-gaap results because management does not believe they are indicative of its current or ongoing operating results. tax effect of non-gaap adjustments. this adjustment is made to present stock-based compensation and the other amounts described above on an after-tax basis consistent with the presentation of non-gaap net income. the company also uses free cash flow, a non-gaap measure. free cash flow represents operating cash flows less purchases of property and equipment. the company considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by the business after the purchases of property, buildings, and equipment, which can then be used to, among other things, invest in the company's business, make strategic acquisitions, and repurchase stock. a limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of financial performance is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in the company's cash balance for the period. in addition to the non-gaap measures discussed above, the company also analyzes certain measures, including net revenues and operating expenses, on an fx-neutral basis to better measure the comparability of operating results between periods. the company believes that changes in foreign currency exchange rates are not indicative of the company’s operations and evaluating growth in net revenues and operating expenses on an fx-neutral basis provides an additional meaningful and comparable assessment of these measures to both management and investors. fx-neutral results are calculated by translating the current period’s local currency results with the prior period’s exchange rate. fx-neutral growth rates are calculated by comparing the current period's fx-neutral results by the prior period's results, excluding the impact from hedging activities. (1) tax expense related to the tax cuts and jobs act.
