Visa vs PayPal, side by side
They both help money move, but at different layers. Visa operates the underlying network - the rails - between banks, taking a tiny, extremely profitable fee on each transaction, and it is a duopoly with Mastercard. PayPal is a consumer and merchant wallet (including Venmo) that sits on top of those rails, competing for the checkout button against Apple Pay, banks and Visa's own products.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on quality and momentum, and weakest on value.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on value and income, and weakest on growth.
The numbers, side by side
| Measure |  Visa |  PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $366.13 | $57.21 |
| Market cap: The company's total value on the stock market - share price times the number of shares. Big = 'large-cap', small = 'small-cap'. | $683.58B | $49.32B |
| P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 31.2 | 10.9 |
| Div yield: Dividend yield: the yearly dividend as a percentage of the share price - roughly the income you'd earn just from dividends. | 0.7% | 1.0% |
| Revenue growth | 14.4% | 4.8% |
| 1Y: How much the share price has moved over the past year. | +5% | -17% |
More measures
| Forward P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 24.5 | 9.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 50.8% | 14.4% |
| ROE | 61.2% | 24.5% |
| Beta: How bumpy the share price is versus the whole market. Above 1 swings more than the market; below 1 is calmer. It's about the ride, not whether it goes up or down. | 0.75 | 1.33 |
The bolder figure is simply the larger of the two - higher is not automatically good (a higher P/E means more expectation in the price; a higher beta means bigger swings).
How they differ
Visa is roughly 14x the size of PayPal by market value. On our factor screen Visa currently screens higher on quality and growth, while PayPal screens higher on value and income. Visa trades on the higher P/E (31.2 vs 10.9), so more expectation is already built into its price. Over the past year the share prices moved +5% (Visa) vs -17% (PayPal).
Descriptive only - how the two compare on today's data, never a verdict on either.
Visa, in one line
Visa is the global plumbing for digital payments, acting as the middleman that securely connects your bank to merchants whenever you tap your card.
Read the full Visa explainer →PayPal, in one line
PayPal is a digital payments giant that helps people and businesses send and receive money online securely across the globe.
Read the full PayPal explainer →What to weigh
If sharp swings bother you, the betas differ (0.75 vs 1.33). These are facts to understand, not a verdict - read each full explainer before deciding anything.
Common questions
If both handle payments, why are they so different?
Position in the chain. Visa's network is infrastructure that almost everyone uses and rarely switches, which gives it fat, steady margins. PayPal competes at the noisy, fast-changing front end of checkout, where rivals are many and loyalty is thinner.
What is the key risk for each?
For Visa, regulators capping fees or new rails (account-to-account payments) bypassing the cards. For PayPal, losing the checkout button to Apple Pay, banks or big tech, since much of its business depends on staying the default wallet.