PayPal shares tumbled more than 10% Thursday after a disappointing forecast added to uncertainty around the payments giant. While the company posted beats on most metrics for its fourth quarter on Wednesday, PayPal guided for earnings that were well below expectations. The company also saw a slowdown in its user base. PayPal is known for pioneering online checkout in the dot-com era. But it’s facing fierce competition from new entrants like Apple Pay and has struggled to dominate e-commerce as online shopping shifts to mobile phones. PYPL 1D line PayPal performance through the day Alex Chriss, who took over as chief executive last September, has conceded that PayPal over-hired during the pandemic, lost focus and was doing too much. He called 2024 a transition year and told CNBC in a phone interview that the company was staying “conservative” on guidance. Still, investors expect the turnaround to take a while, and they are lowering expectations while they wait. The average EPS estimate dropped by 5% after earnings with less than half of analysts covering the stock with a buy rating, according to FactSet. Just a year ago, two-thirds of analysts were bullish on PayPal. “While we appreciate the energy PYPL’s new management team brings to the table, for those of us who have intimately documented the last two years, it’s no surprise that turning around the titanic that is PYPL will be no small feat,” Wells Fargo analyst Andrew Bauch said in a note to clients. ‘Show me’ stock PayPal’s CEO faced criticism for over-promising before its Jan. 25 product event . The company announced plans for a faster checkout experience using artificial intelligence, calling it PayPal’s “next chapter.” It was the first major announcement by Chriss, who joined PayPal from Intuit. Leading up to that, Chriss told CNBC PayPal planned to “shock the world.” The products that followed were widely viewed as underwhelming. Gordon Haskett analyst Don Bilson told clients the CEO didn’t shock the…
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