SOFI vs PYPL Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
SoFi and PayPal both operate in digital financial services but with different core models: SoFi is building a full-stack digital bank combining lending, banking, and investing for a growing member base, while PayPal is a mature, established payments network monetizing transaction volume across its PayPal and Venmo platforms.
SoFi offers a faster-growing, earlier-stage digital banking story with more products-per-member upside but more sensitivity to credit and interest rate cycles. PayPal offers a mature, already-profitable payments network with a large under-monetized Venmo opportunity but facing more competitive pressure in its core checkout business. Consider whether you prefer SoFi's growth-stage banking model or PayPal's established, cash-generative payments scale.
PYPL holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. PYPL leads on both 1-year return (-21.08%) and forward P/E quality (9.26x vs 21.70x for SOFI), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, SOFI is growing revenue faster (42.60%), while PYPL maintains the higher operating margin (16.97%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies similar upside for both: +13.58% for SOFI and +11.18% for PYPL.
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want exposure to a growing digital bank with an expanding product suite per member
- Believe SoFi can keep growing GAAP profitability as its member base and loan book scale
- Are comfortable with lending-cycle sensitivity to interest rates and credit conditions
- Prefer an earlier-stage growth story over a mature, established platform
- Want exposure to an established, already profitable digital payments network with strong free cash flow
- Believe Venmo monetization still has significant room to grow
- Prefer a more mature business with a long track record over an earlier-stage growth story
- Are comfortable with intensifying competition from digital wallets and buy-now-pay-later providers
| Metric | SOFI | PYPL |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 38.7 | 40.5 |
| AI ranki | #1290 | #1095 |
| Latest closei | $18.22 | $54.96 |
| 1M returni | -0.16% | -5.13% |
| 6M returni | -5.35% | +15.37% |
| 1Y returni | -25.60% | -21.08% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | SOFI | PYPL |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $7.18K (-28.2%) started 2025-09-04 | $8.03K (-19.7%) started 2025-09-04 |
| 5Y ago | $11.5K (+15.0%) started 2021-09-07 | $1.87K (-81.3%) started 2021-09-07 |
| 10Y ago | $14.93K (+49.3%) started 2021-01-04 | $14.78K (+47.8%) started 2016-09-06 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | SOFI | PYPL |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $23.04B | $45.9B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 36.41 | 10.14 |
| Forward P/Ei | 21.70 | 9.26 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | 2.24 |
| EV/Revenuei | 5.17 | 1.43 |
| Analyst targeti | $20.26 | $59.66 |
| Target upsidei | +13.58% | +11.18% |
| Metric | SOFI | PYPL |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 42.60% | 4.80% |
| Earnings growthi | 40.40% | -3.10% |
| EPS growthi | +40.40% | -3.10% |
| FCF margini | N/A | +12.96% |
| Operating margini | 16.96% | 16.97% |
| Profit margini | 14.91% | 14.36% |
| ROIC proxyi | 7.09% | 24.50% |
| Return on equityi | 7.09% | 24.50% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 1.04% |
| Betai | 2.20 | 1.30 |
| Debt/equityi | 30.84 | 71.75 |
| Current ratioi | 1.10 | 1.29 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.46 | 0.25 |
Over the past year, SOFI and PYPL have moved weakly in the same direction (correlation of 0.31), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | SOFI | PYPL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -28.21% | -19.72% |
| CAGRi | -28.25% | -19.74% | |
| Volatilityi | 57.01% | 43.93% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.37 | -0.38 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.50 | -0.50 | |
| Max drawdowni | 52.96% | 48.67% | |
| Current drawdowni | 43.43% | 27.81% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 31.21% | 27.37% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 35.89% | 30.77% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.44% | 20.31% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.11% | 24.88% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +15.03% | -81.26% |
| CAGRi | +2.84% | -28.50% | |
| Volatilityi | 66.31% | 43.34% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.30 | -0.66 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.45 | -0.87 | |
| Max drawdowni | 81.54% | 86.67% | |
| Current drawdowni | 43.43% | 81.26% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 51.18% | 71.94% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 56.26% | 73.55% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.44% | 24.59% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.27% | 31.59% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +49.34% | +47.82% |
| CAGRi | +7.34% | +3.99% | |
| Volatilityi | 71.78% | 39.44% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.38 | 0.18 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.61 | 0.26 | |
| Max drawdowni | 83.32% | 87.33% | |
| Current drawdowni | 43.43% | 82.19% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 51.73% | 39.71% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 56.62% | 53.16% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.44% | 24.59% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.27% | 31.59% |
| Category | SOFI | PYPL |
|---|---|---|
| Company | SoFi Technologies, Inc. | PayPal Holdings, Inc. |
| Sector | Financial Services | Financial Services |
| Industry | Credit Services | Credit Services |
| Core business | A digital-first bank offering lending (student loans, personal loans, mortgages), banking, investing, and financial services products, aiming to be a full financial services platform for its members. | Operates a large global digital payments platform (PayPal and Venmo) enabling online checkout, peer-to-peer payments, and merchant services, generating revenue from transaction fees. |
| Investor focus | Member growth and cross-selling of additional products per member, loan origination volume, and progress toward sustained GAAP profitability. | Total payment volume growth, transaction margin trends, Venmo monetization progress, and competitive positioning in checkout and digital wallets. |
- Fast-growing member base with increasing products-per-member as SoFi cross-sells banking, lending, and investing
- Digital bank charter allows it to fund loans with lower-cost deposits rather than relying solely on capital markets
- Diversified revenue across lending, financial services, and a technology platform segment
- Massive, established two-sided network of consumers and merchants built over two decades
- Already solidly GAAP profitable with substantial free cash flow generation
- Venmo represents a large, still under-monetized user base with room for incremental revenue growth
- Lending business is sensitive to interest rate changes and credit quality/default trends
- Achieved GAAP profitability relatively recently, so sustaining and growing margins is still being proven over time
- Competition from both traditional banks and other fintech challengers in lending and banking
- Facing intensifying competition from Apple Pay, other digital wallets, and buy-now-pay-later providers
- Total payment volume growth has moderated from its earlier pandemic-era pace
- Transaction margin pressure from competitive dynamics and merchant fee negotiations
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