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PayPal's third quarter profit beats estimates

PayPal completed the purchase of Swedish payments firm iZettle, its largest ever acquisition, last month
PayPal completed the purchase of Swedish payments firm iZettle, its largest ever acquisition, last month

PayPal Holdings last night reported a third-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as the company signed up more new customers and volume of payments processed rose. 

PayPal said its net income rose to $436m, or 36 cents per share, in the third quarter, from $380m, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier. 

Third quarter revenue rose to $3.68 billion from $3.24 billion. 

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 58 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 54 cents, according to Refinitiv. 

For the fourth quarter, PayPal expects revenue between $4.20 billion and $4.28 billion, in line with analysts' estimates of $4.21 billion estimate. 

Shares of the company, which separated from ecommerce site eBay in 2015, were up 7% in trading after the bell last night. 

In September it completed the purchase of Swedish payments firm iZettle, its largest ever acquisition. 

"As pleased as I am with our financials, the highlight of the quarter was our growth in net new actives and engagement," PayPal's chief executive Dan Schulman said on a call with analysts. 

The company added a record 9.1 million new active accounts in the third quarter, compared to an increase of 8.2 million a year earlier. 

PayPal processed $143 billion in payments over the period, up 24% from a year earlier. 

Venmo, its peer-to-peer payment app popular with younger consumers, processed $17 billion of payments in the third quarter, growing 78%. 

"And while it is still early, our monetisation efforts appear to be reaching a tipping point," Schulman said.

He added that 24% of Venmo users have now participated in a "monetisable action," up from 17% last quarter.