PayPal Stock Is Up 37% in Three Months. That’s the Fastest Stretch in Years.

Key Takeaways for PayPal Stock as of August 2026

• Three-Month Surge: PayPal stock has climbed 36.9% since mid-May to close at $61.66 on August 14, powered by a rejected $53B takeover bid and a Q2 earnings beat.
• Target Lag: The Street’s 33 estimates split 5 buys, 3 outperforms, 32 holds, 1 underperform and 3 sells, with a mean target of $59 that now sits below the stock price for the first time in over a year.
• Model Gap: TIKR’s mid-case model values PYPL at $96 by December 2030, implying 56% total return and 11% annualized from here.
• Guidance Raise: Q2 revenue reached $8.68B, non-GAAP EPS of $1.38 beat the $1.28 estimate, and management lifted its FY26 EPS outlook to ~$5.38.

PayPal stock’s rally has outrun the people paid to price it. Analyze PYPL’s turnaround momentum on TIKR for free →

Why PayPal Stock Jumped 37% in Three Months on a Bid and a Turnaround

PayPal Holdings (PYPL) stock has climbed 36.9% since mid-May, closing at $61.66 on August 14, and the move traces back to two events packed into a single month. On July 15, reports surfaced that Stripe and private equity firm Advent International had assembled $17 billion in equity behind a joint bid for PayPal. Five days later, PayPal’s board rejected the $53 billion offer, priced at $60.50 a share, and hired Goldman Sachs and Evercore to weigh its options. A stock that had spent over a year sliding toward $43 suddenly had a floor under it.

The second leg came eight days after that. On July 28, PayPal reported second-quarter revenue of $8.68 billion, ahead of the $8.47 billion Wall Street expected, with non-GAAP earnings of $1.38 a share beating estimates of $1.28. Total payment volume rose 10% to $486 billion, and management raised its full-year non-GAAP EPS guidance to roughly $5.38. CEO Enrique Lores in Q2 earnings call addressed the takeover chatter directly without naming it: “While there is still significant work ahead, I have strong conviction in our direction and in our ability to execute. At the same time, we remain open and objective in evaluating opportunities. If we see levers or a path that we believe would create superior value for our shareholders than executing our current strategy, we would, of course, carefully consider them.” That sentence is doing a lot of work. It tells the market PayPal isn’t rejecting deals on principle, only on price, while pointing to a cost-savings plan targeting $1.5 billion in run-rate savings over the next two to three years as the fallback case.

Adyen’s own guidance raise on August 13, which sent that stock up 11% and lifted sentiment across payments names, gave PayPal stock its final push into the close. But the core of the move is takeover math layered on top of a business that finally beat its own numbers. PayPal stock is no longer just a turnaround story. It’s a turnaround story with a price floor set by a rejected bid.

PayPal stock’s next move hinges on whether Stripe returns with a higher offer or the turnaround does the work alone. Track PayPal’s M&A speculation and earnings trend on TIKR for free →

Street Analysts Target Trails PayPal Stock’s Rally

The Street’s current view on PayPal stock splits 5 buys, 3 outperforms, 32 holds, 1 underperform and 3 sells across 33 analysts publishing targets, and the mean target of $59 now sits 5% below the $62 close. That’s a reversal. As recently as June 30, the mean target of $51 stood 19% above the price of $43. PayPal stock has since gained 43% while the mean target rose only 14%, and the gap flipped from analysts expecting upside to analysts trailing the tape.

The ratings mix tells the same story from a different angle. Buy-equivalent calls (buys plus outperforms) have fallen from 23 combined a year ago to 8 today, while holds have climbed from 25 to 32 over that stretch. Coverage itself hasn’t moved, holding at 33 estimates for three straight quarters, so this isn’t a story of analysts abandoning the name. It’s a story of a Street that spent over a year cutting targets as the stock fell and hasn’t yet found the conviction to chase it back up.

TIKR Values PayPal Stock at $96, Well Above the Street

TIKR’s mid-case model values PayPal at $96 by December 2030, implying 56% total return from the current price of $62, or 11% annualized over 4.4 years.

That target sits 63% above the Street’s own $59 mean, a gap wider than what’s typical between a house model and sell-side consensus on a large-cap fintech. The model’s confidence rests on the same two pillars driving the rally: a takeover premium that puts a real number on what PayPal is worth to a strategic buyer, and a Q2 print that showed the cost-cutting and financial-services push translating into an actual EPS beat rather than a promise. Whether PayPal stock closes that gap depends on whether the next few quarters look more like July’s earnings report or the years of stalled growth that preceded it.

A mean target below the stock price is a rare setup for PayPal stock. See how the target gap compares to TIKR’s own model on TIKR for free →

Should You Invest in PayPal Holdings, Inc.?

The only way to really know is to look at the numbers yourself. TIKR gives you free access to the same institutional-quality financial data that professional analysts use to answer exactly that question.

Pull up PayPal Holdings, Inc. stock and you’ll see years of historical financials, what Wall Street analysts expect for revenue and earnings in the quarters ahead, how valuation multiples have moved over time, and whether price targets are trending up or down.

You can build a free watchlist to track PayPal Holdings, Inc. alongside every other stock on your radar. No credit card required. Just the data you need to decide for yourself.

Access Professional Tools to Analyze PYPL stock on TIKR for Free →

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Disclaimer:

Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!