LULU vs PYPL: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Lululemon Athletica Inc. and PayPal Holdings, Inc. — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-09-21.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. · Consumer Cyclical
$98.06
+1.5% upside to fair value
Low Conviction
Grade C
VS
PayPal Holdings, Inc. · Financial Services
$52.71
+9.1% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade B-
QuantHub Verdict
PYPL has more upside to fair value
(+9.1%).
These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice.
See all research →
Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
LULU |
PYPL |
| Current Price |
$98.06 |
$52.71 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$99.50 |
$57.50 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
+1.5%
|
+9.1%
|
| Market Cap |
$11.1B |
$45.1B |
| Forward P/E |
—
|
—
|
| EV / EBITDA |
4.6x
|
6.8x
|
| Price / Sales |
1.0x
|
1.3x
|
| Price / FCF |
8.2x
|
7.2x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
-4.3%
|
+4.8%
|
| Gross Margin |
56.1%
|
45.8%
|
| Operating Margin |
17.8%
|
18.8%
|
| Return on Equity |
29.7%
|
24.4%
|
| Dividend Yield |
0% |
1.06% |
| FCF Yield |
12.24%
|
13.97%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Sell
|
Hold
|
Investment Thesis
Lululemon Athletica designs and retails premium athletic apparel and accessories through company-owned stores and direct-to-consumer channels, with roughly 39,000 employees and a brand built on technical fabrics and community-led fitness positioning. The business still earns high returns on equity of 29.7% and generates $12.00 of free cash flow per share on $97.70 of revenue per share, with TTM g…
PayPal operates a global digital-payments platform spanning branded checkout, Venmo, Braintree merchant processing, credit products and fraud-risk infrastructure across approximately 200 markets. Business quality is medium: its two-sided network, trusted brand, broad merchant distribution and risk capabilities remain meaningful assets, but its highest-value branded-checkout franchise is under com…
Accumulation Zones
| Metric |
LULU |
PYPL |
| Zone Low |
$74.62 |
$43.12 |
| Zone High |
$84.58 |
$48.88 |
| In Buy Zone? |
No
|
No
|