eBay, Inc. (EBAY) Information Technology – Internet, Software & Services | Reports January 25, After Market Closes
Key Takeaways
eBay popularized the concept of online shopping in the late 90s and early 2000s, but now it must reinvent itself to compete with the next wave of online e commerce led by Amazon. eBay’s realigned as an online marketplace come amid a rapidly changing consumer environment. Active buyers now amount to 165 million over 1 billion live listings and across 30 countries. The broad turnaround helped boost comparisons in light of these changing trends and the spinoff of PayPal nearly a year and a half ago. Analysts remain optimistic that the auction site turned online marketplace can report meaningful gains in tomorrow’s fiscal fourth quarter announcement.
The Estimize community forecasts earnings to increase by 10% to 55 cents per share, marking a sharp acceleration from the third quarter. That estimate hasn’t changed in the past 3 months when eBay last reported. Analysts target sales for the period at $2.43 billion, about 4% higher than the same period last year. Historically the stock tends to react well during earnings season, rising about 1% immediately through the print to 3% in the month after. That said if Ebay misses or beats in a dramatic fashion price movement could touch double digits in either direction.
Ebay’s transition from an auction site to online marketplace also includes several acquisitions and strategic brand partnerships. The results is a company driven by continually strong performance across its now core marketplace business, eBay classified ads, and Stubhub. Recent acquisitions aim to leverage the immense amount of structured and unstructured data to drive user acquisition and refine search results.
