Fintech company PayPal Holdings (PYPL 2.90%) caught fire during the pandemic. Revenue grew rapidly as business closures and social distancing accelerated the shift toward online shopping, and the stock nearly tripled in value between January 2020 and July 2021.

But Wall Street quickly became disenchanted with PayPal as pandemic-era tailwinds faded, giving way to inflationary headwinds that curbed growth and cut into margins. That pessimism persists to this day, and it has dragged the stock down 81% from its all-time high.

PayPal may never again grow as quickly as it did during the pandemic, but the business remains solid and shares now trade at their cheapest valuation in history. That leaves room for substantial returns in the coming years. Here's why this growth stock could soar 200% by 2030.

PayPal is regaining its financial momentum

As the pandemic faded, PayPal moved quickly to stabilize growth and right-size its cost structure against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. It abandoned plans to double active accounts by 2025, instead choosing the more prudent path of prioritizing frequency among existing users. The fintech company also refocused its investments on three products where it already held considerable market share: digital wallets, branded checkout, and unbranded checkout.

Those efforts have already had a material impact on the business. PayPal began to regain its financial momentum late last year, and the company delivered another round of solid results in the most recent quarter. Revenue rose 7% to $7.3 billion and GAAP net income improved to $1 billion (up from a loss of $341 million in the prior year) as cost control efforts drove a 430 basis point expansion in operating margin.

Management says that momentum will persist in the second half. Full-year guidance calls for 9% revenue growth and 20% non-GAAP earnings growth. But the company hopes to become even more profitable in the future by leaning into value-added services and branded PayPal checkout, which earns higher margins than its unbranded Braintree checkout.

PayPal is a leader in online payment processing

Payment service providers typically form relationships with businesses, but PayPal operates a two-sided network that engages businesses and consumers. That strategy supports data collection on both sides of the transaction, an advantage that (coupled with immense scale to the tune of 431 million active accounts) helps PayPal prevent fraud more effectively than its peers. Indeed, the company boasts the best authorization rates and lowest loss rates in the industry.

Merchants find that quite compelling. PayPal is the most accepted digital wallet in North America and Europe, and it's the clear leader in online payment processing: PayPal holds 41% market share, which is roughly equivalent to that of the next four competitors combined. That bodes well for the company. As a key enabler of e-commerce, it should benefit greatly as online shopping becomes more prevalent.

However, PayPal is also taking steps to increase its foothold in physical retail. Most notably, its recent partnership with Apple allows U.S. consumers to add PayPal- and Venmo-branded credit and debit cards to their Apple Wallets. That could be a significant tailwind, because Apple Pay is the most popular in-store mobile wallet among U.S. consumers.

PayPal shareholders could triple their money by 2030

To summarize, PayPal is the market leader in online payment processing, and it's trying to gain share at physical points of sale. That means its revenue growth should at least keep pace with retail e-commerce sales, which are expected to increase at 8% annually through 2030.

That said, PayPal's revenue growth has historically outpaced retail e-commerce sales, and the company's efforts to increase its brick-and-mortar footprint could add a bit more momentum to the top line. Taking that into consideration, Morningstar analyst Brett Horn expects PayPal to grow revenue at 11% annually over the next decade.

That forecast makes its current valuation of 2.3 times sales -- the cheapest multiple in company history -- look like a bargain. It also leaves room for its $63 billion market cap to triple by 2030. That could happen if (1) PayPal grows revenue at 11% annually through 2030 and (2) the stock trades at 3.2 times sales at the end of that time period, a reasonable estimate compared to the five-year average of 7.8 times sales.

Even if PayPal stock doesn't triple in the next seven years, it's still very well positioned to beat the market. That's why investors shouldn't let this historic buying opportunity slip away.