Ebay Q4 Profit Tops Estimate

(RTTNews) - eBay Inc. (EBAY) reported net income for the fourth quarter of $850 million or $0.65 per share, compared to $751 million or $0.57 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the fourth quarter was $1.1 billion or $0.81 per share, compared to $927 million or $0.70 per share in the prior year quarter.

Net revenue for the fourth quarter rose 13% to $4.53 billion from $3.99 billion in the same quarter last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.80 per share on revenue of $4.54 billion for the fourth quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Looking forward to the first quarter, the company forecasts net revenues of $4.15 billion to $4.25 billion, earnings of $0.51 to $0.53 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.65 to $0.67 per share. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $0.72 per share on revenue of $4.30 billion for the first quarter.

For the full year 2014, eBay forecasts net revenues of $18.00 billion to $18.50 billion, earnings of $2.40 to $2.45 per share and adjusted earnings of $2.95 to $3.00 per share. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $3.12 per share on revenue of $18.49 billion for the full year 2014.

For the full year 2015, the company now expects net revenues of $20.50 billion to $21.50 billion and adjusted earnings per share growth of greater than 10%.

eBay also said that it has received a notice from Carl Icahn indicating that he has nominated two of his employees to its Board of Directors and submitted a non-binding proposal for a spinoff of its PayPal business into a separate company. The notice stated that companies controlled by Icahn had, earlier this month, acquired shares and derivative securities that give him an economic interest of about 0.82% in the company.

In January, the company's board of directors authorized an additional $5 billion stock repurchase program. Together with the $640 million remaining under the company's prior stock repurchase program authorized in June 2012, the company's total repurchase authorization as of January 22, 2014 is $5.6 billion.