PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL

PayPal is still a cash machine with a trusted brand, giant network and enviable licence portfolio, but growth is no longer effortless and the mobile land-grab is fierce. Management has credible plans — debit cards, ads, AI-ready checkout — that could widen margins and restore mid-single-digit top-line growth, and the balance sheet comfortably funds both experiments and buybacks. At roughly 16 times earnings the market prices in very little of that upside, yet also offers only moderate protection if Apple Pay keeps eating its lunch. The stock therefore sits in the tricky middle ground: a good, not great compounder available at a fair, not bargain, price.