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For the quarter ended September 2023, Paypal (PYPL - Free Report) reported revenue of $7.42 billion, up 8.4% over the same period last year. EPS came in at $1.30, compared to $1.08 in the year-ago quarter.

The reported revenue represents a surprise of +0.37% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $7.39 billion. With the consensus EPS estimate being $1.22, the EPS surprise was +6.56%.

While investors closely watch year-over-year changes in headline numbers -- revenue and earnings -- and how they compare to Wall Street expectations to determine their next course of action, some key metrics always provide a better insight into a company's underlying performance.

Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance.

Here is how Paypal performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts:

• Total Payment Volume (TPV): $387.70 billion versus $381.85 billion estimated by nine analysts on average.
• Transaction margin: 45.4% versus 46.8% estimated by nine analysts on average.
• Active accounts: 428 versus the seven-analyst average estimate of 434.
• Total take rate: 1.9% compared to the 1.9% average estimate based on seven analysts.
• Transaction take rate: 1.7% versus the seven-analyst average estimate of 1.8%.
• Transaction expense rate: 0.9% compared to the 0.9% average estimate based on six analysts.
• Transaction and Credit loss rate: 0.1% versus 0.1% estimated by six analysts on average.
• Number of payment transactions: 6,275 versus 6,329 estimated by six analysts on average.
• U.S. net revenues: $4.26 billion versus $4.21 billion estimated by two analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +7% change.
• International net revenues: $3.16 billion versus $3.20 billion estimated by two analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +10.2% change.
• Revenues from other value added services: $764 million versus $722.07 million estimated by 12 analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +24.8% change.
• Transaction revenues: $6.65 billion versus the 12-analyst average estimate of $6.68 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +6.7%.

Shares of Paypal have returned -9.6% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -2.2% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

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