PayPal, Amex Launch ‘Send & Split’ Feature Ahead Of The Holiday Season

Leading payments processing platform PayPal has teamed up with American Express (AXP) to launch the Amex Send & Split feature ahead of the holiday season.

The new feature will allow American Express consumer card members in the US to send money to any PayPal (PYPL) or Venmo (a mobile payment platform owned by PayPal) customer directly through the American Express App. The Amex Send & Split feature will also allow Amex card members to split purchases with their friends and family on PayPal and Venmo, and get paid back directly to the Amex Card as a statement credit.

The two companies feel that the Amex Send & Split feature will be quite useful this holiday season and will help in sharing costs for a group gift. Split requests can be tracked in real-time from the Amex App to see when a card member will get paid back. Moreover, the card member can still earn American Express rewards for the purchases he splits.

Recently, Oppenheimer analyst Glenn Greene reiterated a Buy rating with a $230 price target on PayPal following a sell-off due to softer 4Q eBay-related guidance and COVID-19 obscuring visibility into 2021. The analyst views these issues as temporary and stated that he would buy shares on the pullback.

Greene commented, “Management indicated that it expects to raise medium-term annual revenue guidance from ~17–18% at its February ’21 analyst day, which we believe is indicative of structural acceleration from C19 digital adoption and a strong product road map to monetize increasing engagement (3Q TPV accelerated 6pts to 36%). Additionally, we see leisure travel returning in 2Q:21, providing another tailwind.” (See PYPL stock analysis on TipRanks)

Overall, the Street has a bullish outlook on PayPal, with a Strong Buy analyst consensus based on 26 Buys versus 4 Holds. With shares surging an impressive 74.3% year-to-date, the average price target of $225.50 implies an upside potential of 19.6% in the months ahead.