Alibaba Group Holding Limited vs PayPal Holdings, Inc., two Internet Retail stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Alibaba runs Chinese commerce and cloud; PayPal runs a checkout button used worldwide. PayPal earns 25.26% on equity to Alibaba's 9.26%, and turns 13.51% of its value into free cash where Alibaba manages 4.84%. Yet Alibaba trades at 14.85 times earnings against PayPal's 8.31, so the cheaper multiple sits with the payments name. Alibaba runs debt-free and near book at 1.41 times; PayPal carries a light 0.54 load and asks 2.03 times book. Both keep dividends token. The split is geographic and structural: one a sprawling Chinese conglomerate priced for its regulatory weather, the other a global payments rail the market values more skeptically than its cash suggests.
Comparison updated 2026-07-11.
| Metric | BABA | PYPL |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $112.33 | $46.33 |
| Market cap | $270.1B | $42.6B |
| Sector | Internet Retail | Internet Retail |
| Stage | Mature | Mature |
| Implied growth (priced in) | -0.2% | — |
| P/E | 17.6 | 8.7 |
| P/B | 1.67 | 2.13 |
| P/S | 1.82 | 1.26 |
| EV/EBITDA | 20.8 | 7.4 |
| Revenue growth | +2.6% | +5.8% |
| Operating margin | 4.9% | 17.8% |
| Net margin | 10.1% | 15.0% |
| Return on equity | 9.3% | 25.3% |
| Return on assets | 5.4% | 6.3% |
| Return on invested capital | 3.4% | 15.4% |
| FCF yield | 4.1% | 12.9% |
| Dividend yield | — | 0.3% |
| Debt / equity | 0.00 | 0.54 |
| Current ratio | 1.28 | 1.26 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 2.13 | 1.67 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 4 / 9 | 6 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.