eBay Posts Strong Earnings After PayPal Spinoff

By Chris Lange Updated Apr 27, 8:41PM EDT · Published Oct 21, 4:48PM EDT

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eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) released its third quarter earnings after the markets closed on Wednesday. The company had $0.43 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.10 billion in revenue compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates that call for $0.40 in EPS on $2.09 billion in revenue. The same period from the previous year had $0.46 in EPS on $4.35 billion in revenue.

This quarter marked an important milestone for the company as it celebrated its 20th anniversary. There were a number of activities to commemorate the occasion, including a seller conference where significant upcoming changes to its seller policies and products were unveiled. These changes, which include more objective standards and a new Seller Hub, are intended to help small and medium-sized sellers be even more successful on the eBay platform and better reward sellers who provide great service to eBay buyers.

Also during this quarter, eBay completed the distribution of PayPal and made progress against the completion of the sale of eBay Enterprise. Accordingly, the results of both PayPal and eBay Enterprise are presented as discontinued operations.

The company repurchased roughly $599 million in stock, or 21.9 million shares, in the third quarter. The total repurchase authorization remaining at the end of September was $2.4 billion.

The company described its outlook on the fourth quarter as:

The company expects net revenues between $2,275 million to $2,325 million, representing FX-Neutral growth of 3% – 5%, with Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $0.47 – $0.49 and GAAP earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $0.42 – $0.44.

There are consensus estimates for the fourth quarter of $0.49 in EPS on $2.33 billion in revenue.

The company generated $704 million of operating cash flow from continuing operations and $462 million of free cash flow from continuing operations during the third quarter of 2015. On the books the company had cash, equivalents and short term investments of $5.30 billion at the end of the quarter compared to $7.84 billion at the end of December 2014.

Devin Wenig, President and CEO of eBay, said:

We drove solid results in the quarter in which we completed a complex separation. We also marked eBay’s 20th anniversary and made progress on executing our strategy to reposition the company to deliver stable and profitable long-term growth.

Shares of eBay closed Wednesday down 0.9% at $24.21, with a consensus analyst price target of $29.80 and a 52-week trading range of $20.84 to $29.35. Following the release of the earnings report shares were up 8.8% at $26.34 in the after-hours trading session.

About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.