eBay: investors reassured by positive quarterly report

(CercleFinance.com) - eBay Inc.
reported strong quarterly results late on Tuesday, and said it also repurchased approximately 1 billion dollars of its shares over the quarter.

The US online marketplace said Q3 revenue rose 6% to 2.6 billion dollars over the quarter ended 30 September, while net profit climbed 8% to 554 million dollars, from 511 million last year.

In the third quarter, eBay grew active buyers by 4% across its platforms, for a total of 177 million global active buyers, although analysts have particularly focused on progress in its share buybacks.

The San Jose-based company repurchased approximately 1 billion dollars of its common stock, or 29 million shares, over the third quarter. At the end of this period, the company's total repurchase authorisation remaining was 4.7 billion dollars, the group said.

"We like the focus on aggressive buybacks to drive EPS growth but believe potential StubHub and Classifieds monetizations should be higher priority," analysts at Susquehanna said.

StubHub is eBay's ticket marketplace and eBay Classifieds is a group of marketplaces offering online classifieds in over 1,000 cities around the world.

Looking ahead, eBay forecast Q4 revenue of between 2.85 billion dollars and 2.89 billion dollars, with EPS of 67 cents to 69 cents, which is slightly above the consensus.

These announcements were warmly welcomed by Wall Street on Wednesday, with the eBay share up 3.4% in early trading.



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