EBay Q1 Profit In Line; Revenues Miss Estimates By Slight Margin

(RTTNews) - eBay Inc. (EBAY) Wednesday reported a profit for the first quarter that came in line with Wall Street analysts' estimates, however, revenues fell short of expectations.

eBay's first-quarter profit dropped to $407 million or $0.40 per share from $1.04 billion or $0.94 per share last year. Last year's results included a hefty income tax benefit.

Excluding one-time items, income from continuing operations were $0.53 per share, up from $0.49 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.53 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter grew 12 percent to $2.58 billion from $2.30 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.59 billion for the quarter.

"In Q1 we drove good growth and made further progress with our multi-year effort to transform our customer experience and sharpen the eBay brand," said Devin Wenig, President and CEO of eBay Inc.

In the first quarter, the company grew active buyers by 4 percent to a total of 171 million active buyers on the site. Gross merchandise volume for the quarter increased 13 percent to $23.6 billion.

Looking forward to the second quarter, the company expects revenues between $2.64 billion and $2.68 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.50 to $0.52 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.52 per share on revenues of $2.69 billion.

For full year 2018, the company expects revenues between $10.9 billion to $11.1 billion and adjusted earnings of $2.25 to $2.30 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $2.29 per share and revenues of $11 billion.

EBAY closed Wednesday's trading at $40.97, down $0.21 or 0.51%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further slipped $1.55 or 3.78% in the after-hours trade.