New York, Feb 3, 2026, 10:05 EST — Regular session
- Shares dropped roughly 18% in early trading following a CEO change at PayPal and a weaker earnings forecast.
- Enrique Lores is set to step in as CEO starting March 1, with Jamie Miller serving as interim chief executive until then.
- Investors zeroed in on the slowdown in PayPal’s higher-margin branded checkout segment.
Shares of PayPal dropped roughly 18% to $42.97 in early Tuesday trading, following investor sell-off triggered by a CEO switch and a gloomy earnings outlook for 2026.
The decline is significant as it hits amid a packed earnings week for U.S. markets, where nerves are already frayed over consumer demand and the state of online spending. PayPal finds itself precariously close to that dividing line.
That adds new strain on a company that’s been touting “profitable growth” for months, even as its main checkout button fails to gain traction.
PayPal announced that Alex Chriss will be succeeded by Enrique Lores, currently CEO of HP Inc, starting March 1. The firm also appointed David W. Dorman as independent board chair. Miller will stay on to lead the company until the transition is complete. (Stock Titan)
The board didn’t mince words, stating that “the pace of change and execution was not in line” with its expectations. Lores vowed to bring “greater speed and precision” to the company’s delivery. (Stock Titan)
PayPal posted adjusted earnings of $1.23 per share and revenue of $8.68 billion for the holiday quarter, missing Wall Street forecasts, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Analysts, per LSEG data, had anticipated roughly 8% profit growth in 2026. (Reuters)
PayPal’s updated outlook takes a different tack. The company’s earnings report forecasts 2026 non-GAAP EPS—a figure excluding certain items—to slide by a low single-digit percentage or hold slightly positive. It cited lower interest rates and increased investments as balancing factors. (PayPal Investor Relations)
The company flagged a weak point: online branded checkout, the PayPal-branded button on merchant sites. In an investor newsletter, PayPal reported that branded-checkout total payment volume—the dollar value of payments processed—rose just 1% on an FX-neutral basis (excluding currency effects) this quarter. It’s banking on biometric login and a revamped checkout flow to boost growth.
Competition remains fierce. Investors point to Apple Pay and Shopify’s Shop Pay as key challengers eating into market share at checkout, according to the Financial Times. (Financial Times)
HP shares slipped roughly 7%, landing at $18.43 in early trading, following news of its CEO stepping down.
The downside is clear: if U.S. retail demand remains weak and PayPal’s core checkout growth stalls, the company might need to ramp up spending just to hold on to market share. That comes even as lower interest rates chip away at income from customer balances. Susquehanna analyst James Friedman pointed out that PayPal’s user base leans toward middle-to-lower income groups, which could heighten risk if those consumers pull back. (The Wall Street Journal)
Investors are eyeing potential shifts and their pace ahead of Lores officially stepping in on March 1. He’s flagged the payments sector as “changing faster than ever,” driven by tech and AI transforming commerce. (Apnews)
