Milton Financials: EBay issues strong fourth-quarter forecast exceeding analysts’ estimates.

Oct. 21, 2010 - PRLog -- EBay Inc. stock had its best gain in 15 months on the NASDAQ, Milton Financials has learned, after the e-commerce site announced its fourth-quarter sales and earnings forecast. EBay said it expected sales of between $2.39 billion and $2.49 billion in the final quarter.

The San Jose, California based company said it predicts profit of between 45 cents and 48 cents per share, excluding stock-option costs and other expenses. Most analysts had expected revenue of $2.41 billion and earnings of 44 cents per share.

EBay’s CEO John Donahoe, midway through a three-year effort to revive growth, has cut listing fees to entice more sellers and taken steps to make the firm’s chief Marketplaces commerce site easier to use. EBay is also reaping the benefits from more consumers making purchases online and using PayPal to handle payments.


“There is a lot of positivity here,” Milton Financials believes an analyst at Caris & Co. in San Francisco said. “This is clearly an indication that the EBay turnaround is becoming more compelling.”


EBay’s board has also recently approved a $2 billion share buyback, following a $300 million buyback in the third quarter. Milton Financials sources report that the firm has $6.1 billion in cash of which around $115 million is in the U.S.


“EBay’s core EBay.com website is one of the premier e- commerce properties in the world,” Fred Moran, an analyst at Benchmark Co. recently said in a note to investors available to Milton Financials. “As e- commerce recovers, growth should accelerate on EBay’s marketplace.”

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