PayPal Holdings has named
Intuit
executive Alex Chriss as its next chief executive. His task? Proving his new company can defend its turf against the largest tech companies in the world.
Chriss will succeed Dan Schulman as CEO of
PayPal
(ticker: PYPL) on Sept. 27. Chriss currently runs the Small Business and Self-Employed group for the business-software company
Intuit
(INTU).
PayPal shares more than doubled during Schulman’s tenure, but in the past year they have fallen about 38%. On Monday, the stock traded up about 1.8% to $62.68, compared with the high of more than $300 reached during the Covid-19 pandemic.
PayPal previously had said Schulman would retire by the end of this year, creating uncertainty that analysts say had been a damper on the stock. The news about Chriss resolves that, but the hard part is only beginning.
Chriss’ challenge will be to prove the company can maintain its growth despite rapid gains by
Apple Pay
in online payments. Alternatives to PayPal on the checkout page now commonly include those developed by Apple (AAPL),
Alphabet
‘s Google (GOOGL) and
Amazon.com
(AMZN), a trend that has helped to limit PayPal’s growth even as online payments become ever more widely used.
“The appointment follows a thorough CEO search process, conducted by the Board over the last number of months, with the mandate to appoint a next generation leader with extensive global payments, product, and technology experience,” PayPal said in a statement.
Schulman will remain on PayPal’s board until May next year.
“PayPal will need to change the Apple Pay share loss narrative. This is the #1 drag on the stock,” wrote Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev in a research note after the announcement on Monday. Dolev maintained a “Buy” rating on the stock with a $92 price target.
Earlier this month, PayPal reported second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ forecasts for profits and revenue. Still, the shares tanked 11% as the number of active accounts dropped and operating margins fell.
At Intuit, Chriss managed a 7,000-employee team that served small businesses and self-employed people using the company’s software. He also led the 2021 acquisition and integration of Mailchimp, experience that should please investors disappointed in PayPal’s track record of acquiring companies, wrote analysts for Wolfe Research in a note on Monday.
Chriss might also tap his small-business experience to expand PayPal’s offerings in that area, which include unbranded payment processing and other value-added services, Wolfe wrote.
But that won’t help much if Chriss can’t find a way to address the threat from Apple and firms like it. The number of retailers with at least two checkout buttons has increased to 65% from 27% since 2018, according to a research note last month by MoffettNathanson analyst Lisa Ellis. PayPal itself has a checkout button on about 80% of retail websites, the same as five years ago.
Growing profits despite that increase in competition will be a tall order.
Write to Adam Clark at [email protected]
Read the full article here
