PayPal quarterly profit beats on higher mobile transaction volume

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(Reuters) – Payment processor PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by mobile payments volume that more than doubled.

The company’s shares were up 3.4 percent at $69.55 in extended trading.

San Jose, California-based PayPal has been expanding its services to gain advantage over rivals in the digital payments market, particularly in person-to-person payments, where competition has intensified.

PayPal’s mobile payments volume jumped 54 percent to about $40 billion, while total payments volume rose 30.5 percent to $114.05 billion, in the third quarter.

The company forecast fourth-quarter adjusted earnings in the range of 50 cents to 52 cents per share. Analysts had expected earnings of 51 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income rose to $380 million, or 31 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $323 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 46 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 43 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

PayPal, whose product portfolio includes Braintree, Venmo, One Touch and Xoom, added 218 million active customer accounts in the reported quarter, up 13.5 percent from a year earlier.

Revenue rose 21.4 percent to $3.24 billion.