PayPal, one of the larger players in the payments space, has been doing well since it was spun off from online auction site eBay in mid-2015. As a payments company, PayPal supports online commerce, which can be an attractive investment if you think the world is moving more and more towards electronic payments and even more e-commerce. PayPal is also the company behind Venmo, which has gained a lot of attention in recent years for bank-to-bank transfers.PayPal has experienced a boom in business during the pandemic, with profits soaring more than 70% in 2020 as more people move shopping online. But the company now faces slowing growth and issued a disappointing 2022 earnings outlook, sending its shares down nearly 25% in a day. The stock has lost nearly 60% this year through May 2022.
If you’re considering buying a stake in PayPal stock, here’s what to do and what you need to know before you decide.
1. Analyze PayPal and its financials
Analyzing a company’s competitive position and financials can be the hardest part of buying stocks, but it’s also the most important. The best place to start is the company’s Form 10-K, which is the annual report that all public companies must file with the SEC.
10-K 表可以帮助您了解很多有关公司的信息：
- 它如何赚钱以及赚多少钱
- 资产及负债
- 其盈利能力随着时间的推移而发展
- 竞争格局
- 公司面临的各类风险
- 管理团队以及如何激励他们
An annual report is a good first step to learning more about a company, but you want to do more than that. You should check what other companies are doing to compete as it is important to have a broader view of the industry.
For example, PayPal is one of the largest payment companies, but it competes with some very well-known companies. Visa and Mastercard have reached a strategic agreement with PayPal that will expand the reach of the retailer’s payment network and allow consumers to pay using the methods they prefer. Currently, Visa and Mastercard have agreed not to impose any fees or rules on PayPal, but this may change when the strategic agreement ends.
2. Does PayPal make sense in your portfolio?
PayPal is doing well and growing rapidly, with revenue growing around 20% in 2020 and 2021. If this growth can continue, the stock should do well. However, there are also some risks, such as B. due to the company’s strong competitors and lower growth prospects in 2022. And the nature of tech companies is often associated with the disruption of incumbents, so PayPal is doing well, but there’s no guarantee the future will be just as bright.
因此你应该问自己以下问题：
- 您了解该业务及其未来前景吗？
- 随着您的业务和行业的发展，您能继续对其进行分析吗？
- Given how volatile the stock is, can you hold or even buy more if it goes down?
- Do you understand the value of the company and how it compares to the current market value?
- PayPal Doesn’t Pay Dividends – Do You Need Stocks?
3. 您能承受多少投资？
How much you can invest has less to do with PayPal and more to do with your personal financial situation. Stocks can be volatile. So to give your investment time to pay off, you should be able to keep your money in stocks for at least three to five years. This means you should be able to live without money for at least that long.
Commitment to holding the stock for three to five years is important. You hate having to sell a stock when it’s nearing a bottom, only to see it bounce higher after you exit your position. By sticking to a long-term plan, you can ride out the ups and downs of the stock.
If you invest in individual stocks, you should probably keep the percentage of individual positions between 3% and 5%. That way, you’re not seriously exposed to investments that wreck your portfolio. You can choose a lower percentage than this range if the stock has a higher business risk.
此外，不要只是将一大笔钱投资于股票，还要考虑如何随着时间的推移增加资金。
4. 开立经纪账户
虽然开设经纪账户听起来很困难，但实际上非常简单，您只需大约 15 分钟即可完成所有设置。
您应该选择一家适合您需求的经纪人。您经常交易还是很少交易？您需要高水平的服务或研究吗？成本对您来说是最重要的因素吗？如果您购买少量股票但主要投资于基金，一些经纪商会为这些基金提供专门的免佣金交易。
After opening an account, you should have sufficient funds to purchase PayPal stock. But you can do this completely online, and it’s easy.
With PayPal stock trading around $80 a share as of May 2022, you probably won’t have enough cash to buy an entire share. Several brokers, including Charles Schwab and Fidelity, have started offering fractional shares to help with this, allowing you to invest for just a few dollars.
5. Buy PayPal stock
Once you decide to buy PayPal stock and open and fund your brokerage account, you can set up your order. Use the company’s ticker symbol – PYPL when entering your order.
大多数经纪商在每一页的底部都有一张“交易单”，以便您输入订单。在经纪人的订单上，您需要输入股票代码和您能买得起的股票数量，或者如果您购买零股，则输入您想要投资的金额。然后输入订单类型：市价或限价。市价单不管股票当前价格如何都会买入股票，而限价单只有当股票达到您设定的价格时才会执行。
如果您只购买几只股票，最好坚持市价单。即使您现在为市价单支付更多费用，如果股票继续表现良好，也不会对长期表现产生太大影响。
底线
购买股票可能令人兴奋，但成功并非一朝一夕就能实现。投资者应该以长远的眼光看待他们的投资，如果他们相信股票的长期价值，他们应该考虑使用美元平均成本。
通过美元平均成本，投资者会随着时间的推移向其头寸增加一定数量的资金，这在股票下跌时确实有帮助，并允许他们购买更多。高涨的股票有时也会下跌，所以这种策略可以帮助你获得更低的买入价格和更高的总体利润。
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