eBay's Guidance As An Auction Didn't Fetch The Minimum Bid (EBAY)

eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has posted earnings on a non-GAAP basis of $0.45 EPS on $2.18 Billion in revenues.  First Call had earnings estimates at $0.41 EPS on roughly $2.14 Billion in revenues.  The actual report was good, but eBay’s guidance is going to be a disappointment to some of the perma-bulls.  Guidance is as follows:

• eBay’s non-GAAP EPS $0.37 to $0.39 on on $2.0 to $2.05 Billion in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.40 EPS on $2.15 Billion in revenues.
• eBay is guiding fiscal 2008 non GAAP earnings of $1.63 to $1.67 on revenues of $8.5 to $8.75 Billion; First Call has estimates for fiscal 2008 at $1.66 EPS on roughly $9 Billion in revenues.

It bought back roughly 9.2 million shares of its common stock at a cost of approximately $312 million (For the full year, the company repurchased 44.6 million shares of its common stock for approximately $1.5 billion).  As we had previously noted, Meg Whitman is retiring from the company and John Donahoe will become successor as of March 31, 2008.  The company has approved yet another repurchase plan of up to $2 Billion in stock.

Shares were challenging its 52-week lows yesterday and the stock was still down well over 30% from its 52-week highs. Shares posed a late day rally to close up some 6.6% at $28.94, although because of tepid guidance shares are down some 8% at $26.55 in after-hours trading. 

It looks like that $40-ish price target and some earnings estimates for the year might be coming down tomorrow morning.

Jon C. Ogg
January 23, 2008