PayPal beats estimates, raises 2017 forecasts

(Reuters) - PayPal Holdings Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as the payment processor's growing strategic partnerships helped boost payment volumes.

The company's shares were up 2.4 percent in trading after the bell on Wednesday.

Net income rose 27.2 percent to $411 million, or 34 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30.

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.

San Jose, California-based PayPal has been expanding its strategic partnerships and investing in new services.

The company has partnerships with Visa Inc, MasterCard Inc, Google's mobile payments platform, Android Pay and several others.

PayPal's collaboration with Apple Inc's services earlier this month has mitigated much concern among investors about competitive threat from Apple. (bit.ly/2udRdBv)

PayPal raised its 2017 adjusted earnings forecast to a range of $1.80 per share to $1.84 per share, from $1.74 per share to $1.79 per share range it previously forecast.

The company said it now expected full-year revenue to be in the range of $12.775 billion to $12.875 billion, up from $12.52 billion to $12.72 billion earlier.

PayPal, whose product portfolio includes Braintree, Venmo, One Touch and Xoom, among others, added 210 million active customer accounts in the quarter, up 3.4 percent from a year ago.

Mobile payments volume rose 50 percent to about $36 billion.

PayPal has said more than half of its total active account holders transact using a mobile device.

Payment volumes at PayPal's Venmo, the Braintree-operated peer-to-peer mobile payments platform, more than doubled to $8.0 billion in the second quarter.

Total payments volume jumped 23.5 percent to $106.44 billion.

Total revenue rose 18.3 percent to $3.14 billion.

Up to Wednesday's close, PayPal's shares had risen 49 percent this year.