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PayPal (PYPL) is scheduled to report results for its fourth fiscal quarter before the market opens on February 3, with a conference call scheduled for 8:00 am EDT. What to watch for:

OUTLOOK: During the company’s last earnings call, PayPal said it saw Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.27-$1.31, with consensus at the time at $1.31. The company also raised FY25 adjusted EPS view to $5.35-$5.39 from $5.15-$5.30. According to Yahoo Finance data, PayPal is expected to report Q4 EPS of $1.29 and Q4 revenue of $8.79B.

SELL PAYPAL: Last week, Rothschild & Co Redburn downgraded PayPal to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $50, down from $70. PayPal should be well positioned for agentic commerce given its scale, but its advantage will erode as consumer behavior shifts, the firm tells investors in a research note. Rothschild & Co Redburn says the “marginal consumer” is increasingly choosing alternative payment methods. It sees Shop Pay, Stripe Link, Apple Pay and Google Pay as “winning the incremental user.”

COMPETITIVE PRESSURES: Meanwhile, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Ramsey El-Assal initiated coverage of PayPal with a Neutral rating and $60 price target Recent strategic initiatives have created a more balanced, profitable growth engine across Branded, PSP, and Venmo, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm added that momentum across these vectors should drive further volume and revenue acceleration in FY26, though competitive pressures remain “intense.”

ACQUISITION: PayPal announced it has agreed to acquire Cymbio, a multi-channel orchestration platform that helps brands sell across agentic surfaces, including Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, and other e-commerce channels. PayPal previously partnered with Cymbio as part of its agentic commerce services, a suite of solutions that allows merchants to attract customers and drive sales in the new era of AI-powered commerce. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. Deal terms were not disclosed.

Commenting on the agreement, Morgan Stanley says the combined capabilities will enable merchants to synchronize their product data, real-time inventory, and fulfillment logic directly with AI platforms. The firm believes this to be a step in the right direction in increasingly agentic world, but sees a small immediate contribution. Furthermore, Morgan Stanley thinks it doesn’t address the most pressing issue. As it outlined in its recent downgrade, the firm believes PayPal’s partnerships and integrations with AI players are unlikely to soften the pace of persistent consumer checkout share loss. Morgan Stanley has an Underweight rating on PayPal with a price target of $51 on the shares.

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