eBay Inc Reported Solid Earnings, Shares Hit New Highs (NASDAQ:EBAY, AMZN, OSTK)

eBay Inc(NASDAQ:EBAY) shares rose to a new 52-week high on Thursday after the company reported solid first-quarter profit thinks to higher revenue from its PayPal business and brisk sales at its e-commerce websites.The company reported net income $570 million, or 44 cents a share, up 20% from a year ago profit of $476 million, or 36 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned 55 cents a share, ahead of analysts’ estimates of 52 cents a share.Revenue during the quarter soared 29% to $3.28 billion from $2.55 billion a year ago, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $3.15 billion.Revenue at PayPal surged 32% year-over-year to $1.31 billion, while the number of active accounts jumped 12% to 109.8 million.

For the second quarter, eBay expects to earn 53 cents to 55 cents a share and revenue of $3.25 billion to $3.35 billion, compared to analysts’ estimates of 55 cents and slightly higher revenue of $3.42 billion.For the full year, the company forecast earnings excluding one-time items of $2.30 to $2.35 a share on revenue between $13.8 billion and $14.1 billion. Wall Street analysts had earlier estimated eBay would earn $2.30 a share on $13.85 billion in revenue for the entire year.Following the solid results, various analysts rerated the stock and lifted their price target.
Analyst at Piper Jaffray lifted their price target on the stock by $14 to $50, citing “Given PayPal is already an adopted platform; the incremental effort needed for a consumer to use the mobile aspect of PayPal is less.”
Also, analyst at Benchmark Capital lifted their price target by $8 to $45 and upgraded the stock to buy from hold, citing in addition to growth in eBay’s payments business, Kurnos highlighted the performance of the Marketplaces retail business and believes the gains there are sustainable through the rest of the year.

Shares of EBAY soared 13.24% to $40.62 on Thursday and made a new 52-week high of $41.84.Shares of Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) also climbed slightly, while Overstock.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:OSTK) soared 7%.