Ebay revamp pays off as quarterly revenue beats estimates

Online retailer Ebay reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and raised its sales forecast for the year as efforts to revamp its online marketplace start to pay off.

Shares in the marketplace were up 8 per cent after the bell on Wednesday after the company’s board also authorised an additional $2.5 billion stock buyback programme.

The company, which spun off PayPal last July, has tackled slowing growth by focusing on small business sellers, while offering a bigger selection of products.

Gross merchandise volume, or the total value of all goods sold on its sites, was up 4 per cent at $20.9 billion (€18.9 billion) in the second quarter ended June 30, helped by strength in its US business.

The number of active buyers rose 4 per cent to 164 million.

The company’s revenue also got a boost from robust sales at Stubhub, which won a 6.5 year revenue-sharing deal to resell tickets for the New York Yankees last month.

Stubhub’s revenue jumped 40 per cent to $225 million in the latest quarter.

EBay raised its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $8.85 billion to $8.95 billion, from $8.6 billion to $8.8 billion; and adjusted profit from continuing operations in the range of $1.85 to $1.90, from $1.82 to $1.87 per share.

The improved forecast was a “positive surprise” this early in the year, Wedbush Securities analyst Gil Luria said.

For the third quarter, the company forecast revenue of $2.16 billion to $2.19 billion and adjusted profit from continuing operations of 42 to 44 cents per share.

Analysts on average expect profit of 44 cents per share and revenue of $2.14 billion.

The company’s net income rose to $435 million, or 38 cents per share, in the latest quarter from $83 million, or 7 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Ebay earned 43 cents per share, beating analysts’ expectations by 1 cent.

Revenue rose 5.7 per cent to $2.23 billion, ahead of analysts’ average estimate of $2.17 billion.

Up to Wednesday’s close, shares of the San Jose, California-based company had fallen 5.6 per cent in the past 12 months.

Reuters