PayPal Holdings (PYPL, Financial) contributed positively to performance as the Company reported accelerating revenue growth and more concrete measures to drive long-term profitability. Revenue growth accelerated throughout the quarter as the Company is taking share in e-commerce while lapping the headwinds of the eBay rolling off. While eBay’s revenues represented higher-margin revenues, the Company should be able to drive better transaction margins as total payment volume growth reaccelerates. Part and parcel of this growth comes from PayPal’s investments to drive higher penetration into its 429 million active accounts. PayPal’s active accounts have grown by +50% since the onset of the pandemic so it makes sense for management to focus on driving higher transactions per account, thus better to monetize this historical windfall of users. The Company also authorized a $15 billion share repurchase program, which represents over 10% of shares outstanding. This is a good use of capital relative to the Company's historically depressed multiples.
From David Rolfe (Trades, Portfolio)'s Wedgewood Partners third-quarter 2022 shareholder letter.
