MA vs PYPL: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Mastercard Incorporated and PayPal Holdings, Inc. — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-09-17.
Mastercard Incorporated · Financial Services
$574.42
+25.0% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade A-
High Quality
VS
PayPal Holdings, Inc. · Financial Services
$52.71
+9.1% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade B-
QuantHub Verdict
MA has more upside to fair value
(+25.0%).
These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice.
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Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
MA |
PYPL |
| Current Price |
$574.42 |
$52.71 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$718.00 |
$57.50 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
+25.0%
|
+9.1%
|
| Market Cap |
$503.8B |
$45.1B |
| Forward P/E |
—
|
—
|
| EV / EBITDA |
23.4x
|
6.8x
|
| Price / Sales |
14.4x
|
1.3x
|
| Price / FCF |
30.8x
|
7.2x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
+14.1%
|
+4.8%
|
| Gross Margin |
100%
|
45.8%
|
| Operating Margin |
59.8%
|
18.8%
|
| Return on Equity |
232.5%
|
24.4%
|
| Dividend Yield |
0.59% |
1.06% |
| FCF Yield |
3.25%
|
13.97%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Strong Buy
|
Hold
|
Investment Thesis
Mastercard operates a global payments network that connects issuers, acquirers, merchants and consumers across more than 200 countries and territories, monetizing payment volumes, cross-border activity and higher-growth value-added services. Business quality is high because its two-sided network, trusted authorization-clearing-settlement infrastructure, brand, security capabilities and broad acce…
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 |
MA |
PYPL |
| Zone Low |
$538.50 |
$43.12 |
| Zone High |
$610.30 |
$48.88 |
| In Buy Zone? |
Yes
|
No
|