EBay Profit Tops View - Update

(RTTNews) - eBay Inc. (EBAY) Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the first quarter that also trumped analysts estimates by a penny, driven largely by revenue growth.

eBay's first-quarter profit rose to $1.04 billion or $0.94 per share from $482 million or $0.41 per share last year.

Excluding one-time items, income from continuing operations were 0.49 per share, compared to $0.47 per share last year. A survey polled by Thomson Reuters showed that analysts expected earnings of $0.48 per share.

Revenues for the quarter rose 4 percent to $2.22 billion from last year's revenues of $2.14 billion. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.21 billion for the quarter.

"The first quarter was a strong start to the year with accelerating growth in active buyers, revenue and our core U.S. business," said Devin Wenig, President and CEO of eBay Inc. "We are on the right path as we continue to evolve our shopping platform for consumers, leverage our technology advantages and market a sharpened eBay brand globally."

The company said added over 2 million active buyers to a total of 169 million active buyers on the site. Gross merchandise volume for the quarter increased 2 percent to $20.9 billion.

Looking forward to the second quarter, the company expects revenues between $2.28 billion and $2.32 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.43 to $0.45 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.47 per share on revenues of $2.32 billion.

For full year 2017, the company continues to expect revenues between $9.3 billion to $9.5 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.98 to $2.03 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $2.01 per share and revenues of $9.41 billion.

EBAY closed Wednesday's trading at $33.85, down $0.17 or 0.49%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further slipped $0.85 or 2.53% in the after-hours trade.