PayPal is the worst performer among payment giants, with a five-year stock return of -40%. The company’s stock price is still 80% below its all-time high of $300 in July 2021.

PayPal’s stock struggled throughout last year due to fears that Google and Apple’s entry into digital payments could take away a big chunk of the company’s business. Although the payment provider’s stock price bounced back this year, following a 15% drop in 2023, its five-year stock return is still negative.

According to data presented by AltIndex.com, PayPal is the worst performer among the top payment giants, with a five-year stock return of -40%.

Although it seemed like PayPal’s popularity started fading last year, with the payment provider seeing four straight quarters of user drop, the company’s earnings report revealed better-than-expected results in the number of payments and the total payment volume.

According to the official company data, PayPal’s total payment volume (TPV) jumped by 12% and hit an all-time high of $1.52 trillion in 2023. The number of transactions also increased by 12% year-over-year and hit almost 25 billion. However, that didn’t stop PayPal’s stock price from dropping even further, showing that investors still have concerns about the company`s future growth. Last year, PayPal’s stock price dropped by 15%, falling from $76 in January to roughly $60 in December, adding a new weight to its already worrying five-year stock return.

Assuming an investor had bought $1,000 worth of PayPal stocks five years ago, they would now be facing a loss of over 40% on their investment. This is a significant drop, but what’s even more alarming is the difference between PayPal’s current stock price and its all-time high in 2021. In July 2021, a single PayPal stock was valued at $308, nearly 80% higher than the $66 it hit last week.

Source: Yahoo Finance

According to the AltIndex platform, PayPal stocks have an AI score of 47 out of 100, five points less than two months ago, and are designated with a hold signal.

The Only Payment Giant with a Negative Five-Year Stock Return

PayPal’s five-year stock return of -40% is even more worrying when compared to that of other payment giants. For example, Visa’s stocks were traded at $267 last week, or 65% more than five years ago. Mastercard and American Express brought even better five-year returns to investors.

Since 2019, Mastercard stock price has jumped by 77%, rising from $245 to $441 as of last week. The five-year return of the US financial services corporation American Express hit almost 95% last week, with its stock price surging from $119 to $232 in this period.