What happened Shares of digital-payments specialist PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL) rose 36.1% in the first six months of 2019, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The surge was more of a steady climb than the result of any particular trigger event. So what PayPal beat Wall Street's bottom-line expectations in each of the two earnings reports it presented during the first half, including a large outperformance in the first quarter. The company now sports 277 million active accounts, managing $161 billion of payments in the first quarter alone. Mobile-payment service Venmo has 40 million active users and is growing rapidly. Venmo is very popular among younger consumers, thanks to a comments system that makes this payment service feel almost like a social media platform. Here, PayPal is exploring new monetization strategies for the mostly free-to-use service such as Venmo-branded credit and debit cards, as well as the ability to send payments faster for a small fee. The company also announced a new partnership with Facebook's Instagram service, made another strategic tie-up with Uber, and started working toward a blockchain-based payment service to call its own. All of these initiatives helped PayPal's stock rise higher. Image source: Getty Images. Now what We're still talking about a relatively young growth stock here. PayPal's payment-processing volume may seem impressive, but $161 billion per quarter is nothing next to sector-giant Visa's $2.8 trillion for the same period. There's a lot of growing left to do, and PayPal is attacking this huge addressable market with an innovative attitude. I wouldn't be surprised to see the stock continue to climb in the second quarter -- and far beyond. 10 stocks we like better than PayPal HoldingsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has quadrupled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and PayPal Holdings wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of June 1, 2019 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and PayPal Holdings. The Motley Fool recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source