← PayPal Holdings, Inc.

PYPL · Forward model · Bull case

The Bull case, 20 quarters out

Model as of

Each segment is projected from its own operating driver, rolled up into consolidated cash flow, and discounted back to a fair value per share. The assumptions below are editable — change them and every number on this page moves with them.

PayPal operates as ONE reportable segment - the 10-Q's Note 15 says the CODM manages the business on consolidated net income - so the only revenue decomposition with dollars attached is the two-category split used here: Transaction revenues and Revenues from other value added services. Both lines are disclosed in the release's Net Revenues by Type table and in the 10-Q disaggregation note, and they sum to reported net revenues with zero residual in all 21 quarters carried here (2021 Q2 - 2026 Q2, assembled from five Q2 releases with four overlap quarters that agreed to the dollar). The deck's channel view - branded experiences 31% of TPV, PSP 45%, P2P and other consumer 27%, Venmo 19% - is TPV only, carries no revenue, and overlaps by construction, so it is NOT used as a revenue split. What is disclosed: both revenue lines, TPV, the transaction take rate, transaction margin dollars, interest on customer balances, volume-based expense, capex, shares, cash and debt. What is assumed: the allocation of volume-based expense between the two lines (constrained to reconcile to the disclosed $3,900M total), every forward growth and drift rate, and the exit multiple. The engine holds share count flat at 882M weighted-average diluted shares; PayPal is guided to repurchase $6B in 2026 and retired 111M shares over the trailing year, so the per-share figures here are deliberately conservative and do not capture the buyback. Corporate overhead is held at a constant 24.7% of revenue: management guides FY2026 non-transaction operating expense to grow 7-8% while the $1.5B savings programme is GROSS run-rate and arrives over two to three years, so a flat ratio is the mid-path between the two and neither takes the savings as a step down nor ignores them. Free cash flow here is taxed EBITDA less capex and prints about $5.0B annualised against the $6B+ of guided adjusted free cash flow, which strips out loan-origination timing this model does not carry.

PYPL forward model
Horizon
Fair value per share $82.39 +57% against $52.53
Terminal-year revenue $45.08B last four projected quarters
Enterprise value $70.81B $22.91B explicit + $47.90B terminal

The cost line does the work the take rate will not. Management is committed to at least $1.5B of gross run-rate savings over two to three years, roughly 40% of it from AI adoption, with ~$400M landing by the end of 2026 - against a non-transaction expense base of $2,393M a quarter. Take-rate compression eases a little faster than the base as branded checkout stabilises at low single digits, margin runs 1.5 points better, and the exit holds 8.5x rather than de-rating again. What this case does NOT reach is a return to double-digit revenue growth or a network multiple: branded checkout is guided to low single digits and the take rate is still falling. Nor does it capture the buyback - $6B guided against a $54B market cap, 111M shares already retired in a year - because the engine holds share count flat.

PYPL REVENUE MODEL

Latest: $11.47B (2031Q2E)

Period Value
2021Q2 $6.24B
2021Q3 $6.18B
2021Q4 $6.92B
2022Q1 $6.48B
2022Q2 $6.81B
2022Q3 $6.85B
2022Q4 $7.38B
2023Q1 $7.04B
2023Q2 $7.29B
2023Q3 $7.42B
2023Q4 $8.03B
2024Q1 $7.70B
2024Q2 $7.88B
2024Q3 $7.85B
2024Q4 $8.37B
2025Q1 $7.79B
2025Q2 $8.29B
2025Q3 $8.42B
2025Q4 $8.68B
2026Q1 $8.35B
2026Q2 $8.68B
2026Q3E $8.73B
2026Q4E $9.30B
2027Q1E $8.88B
2027Q2E $9.20B
2027Q3E $9.25B
2027Q4E $9.85B
2028Q1E $9.40B
2028Q2E $9.74B
2028Q3E $9.79B
2028Q4E $10.42B
2029Q1E $9.94B
2029Q2E $10.30B
2029Q3E $10.34B
2029Q4E $11.01B
2030Q1E $10.50B
2030Q2E $10.87B
2030Q3E $10.92B
2030Q4E $11.61B
2031Q1E $11.08B
2031Q2E $11.47B
Scenarios

Where each case comes from

Bear case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Bear column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Lores case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Lores column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Valuation

From cash flow to fair value

The published model, discounted at 9.5% a year with an exit multiple of 8.5x on EBITDA. The horizon and sliders above do not change this walk.

Present value of free cash flow, 20 quarters$22.91B
Terminal-year revenue$45.08B
Terminal-year EBITDA$8.87B
Exit multiple, on EBITDA8.5x
Terminal value$75.41B
Discounted at 9.5% a year, terminal value becomes$47.90B
Share of enterprise value from the terminal68%
Enterprise value$70.81B
Net cash$1.86B
Equity value$72.67B
Shares0.88B
Fair value per share$82.39
Against the deployed price of $52.53, as of +57%

Exit at 7.5x terminal-year EBITDA, which is where PayPal trades today: EV of $52.5B (market cap $54.4B at $61.68 on 882M diluted shares, less $1.9B of net cash) against annualised basis-quarter EBITDA of $7.0B (non-GAAP operating income $1,507M plus D&A $246M, times four) is 7.49x. Holding it flat is deliberate - the model should earn its upside from cash, not from a re-rating, and this business has de-rated for four straight years. Discount at 9.5%: near net-cash and cash-generative, but transaction margin is compressing and the terminal value is most of the answer. Move the exit multiple before anything else; after that, the take-rate drift. The comparable set is qualitative on purpose. The volume-and-take-rate half looks like Block and the merchant acquirers, which is where a low-teens earnings multiple comes from, and the networks are not comparable because they toll volume they do not fund. No peer multiple was verified against a primary source in this pass, so none is asserted here.

Read the other way round: at $52.53 the market is paying 3.8x terminal-year EBITDA, holding every other assumption on this page fixed. That is the number to argue about.

Quarter by quarter

The projected path

The published model's 20 quarters. The horizon and sliders above do not change this table.

Quarter Transaction revenuesRevenues from other value added services Revenue YoY EBITDA Capex FCF R40 PV of FCF
2026 Q3E $7.87B$858M $8.73B +4% $1.89B $214M $1.35B +19 $1.32B
2026 Q4E $8.43B$866M $9.30B +7% $1.97B $232M $1.41B +22 $1.35B
2027 Q1E $8.01B$875M $8.88B +6% $1.90B $225M $1.35B +22 $1.26B
2027 Q2E $8.32B$884M $9.20B +6% $1.94B $237M $1.38B +21 $1.26B
2027 Q3E $8.36B$893M $9.25B +6% $1.94B $241M $1.38B +21 $1.23B
2027 Q4E $8.95B$903M $9.85B +6% $2.03B $259M $1.44B +21 $1.25B
2028 Q1E $8.49B$912M $9.40B +6% $1.96B $250M $1.38B +21 $1.18B
2028 Q2E $8.82B$922M $9.74B +6% $2.01B $262M $1.41B +20 $1.18B
2028 Q3E $8.86B$933M $9.79B +6% $2.01B $265M $1.41B +20 $1.15B
2028 Q4E $9.47B$943M $10.42B +6% $2.10B $284M $1.47B +20 $1.17B
2029 Q1E $8.99B$954M $9.94B +6% $2.03B $273M $1.42B +20 $1.11B
2029 Q2E $9.33B$965M $10.30B +6% $2.08B $284M $1.45B +20 $1.11B
2029 Q3E $9.37B$976M $10.34B +6% $2.08B $287M $1.46B +20 $1.08B
2029 Q4E $10.02B$987M $11.01B +6% $2.18B $307M $1.52B +19 $1.11B
2030 Q1E $9.50B$999M $10.50B +6% $2.10B $294M $1.47B +20 $1.04B
2030 Q2E $9.86B$1.01B $10.87B +6% $2.16B $305M $1.50B +19 $1.04B
2030 Q3E $9.90B$1.02B $10.92B +6% $2.17B $308M $1.50B +19 $1.02B
2030 Q4E $10.58B$1.04B $11.61B +6% $2.27B $328M $1.57B +19 $1.05B
2031 Q1E $10.03B$1.05B $11.08B +6% $2.19B $314M $1.52B +19 $987M
2031 Q2E $10.41B$1.06B $11.47B +5% $2.25B $326M $1.56B +19 $989M

Every row is projected. A year-over-year change is shown only where the quarter it compares against exists — an em dash means there is no comparable quarter, not a flat year.

Track record

Model revisions

Assumptions are marked to reality as each quarter prints. Every change is appended here, with the fair value the model produced at the time, so the model's own history stays visible.

DateFair value thenNote
2026-08-27 $66.58 Initial model. Two verticals on the only revenue split PayPal publishes, 21 quarters of disclosed history, basis the June 2026 quarter at $8,682M. The transaction line runs as TPV x take rate with derived seasonality; the other-services line runs aseasonal on sequential growth. Base prints FY2026 revenue of $34.97B and transaction margin dollars of $15.71B against the guided ~$15.6B.