EBay Reports Mixed Q2 Results

(RTTNews) - eBay Inc. (EBAY) Wednesday reported a drop in second-quarter profit from continuing operations, despite 14% growth in revenues. The online e-commerce giant also witnessed a decline in consumer online spending and active buyers, while active sellers increased.

eBay's second-quarter profit rose to $10.73 billion or $15.68 per share from $746 million or $0.37 per share last year. The results included eBay Korea business which were reported as discontinued operations. Net income from continuing operations was $294 million or $0.43 per share, compared to $689 million or $0.98 per share.

Adjusted income from continuing operations was $675 million or $0.99 per share, compared to $702 million or $0.99 per share.

Revenues for the quarter increased 14 percent to $2.67 billion from $2.34 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.95 per share and revenues of $3.0 billion for the quarter.

The company's gross merchandise volume, which is the value of goods sold on its websites, fell 7% to $22.1 billion in the quarter. Annual active buyers declined by 2%, for a total of 159 million global active buyers, while annual active sellers grew by 5%, for a total of 19 million global active sellers.

"Today I am pleased to announce another strong quarter. In Q2, on an apples-to-apples basis, all key business metrics met or exceeded expectations and revenue growth was driven by the acceleration in our payments migration and growth in advertising," said Jamie Iannone, Chief Executive Officer at eBay.

Looking forward to the third quarter, the company expects revenues between $2.42 billion and $2.47 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.86 to $0.90 per share.

Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.90 per share on revenues of $2.89 billion.

EBAY closed Wednesday's trading at $68.02, up $0.71 or 1.05%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $0.67 or 0.99% in the after-hours trade.