EBay To Return Approx. $7.0 Bln To Shareholders Over Two Years - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - eBay Inc. (EBAY) announced the company expects to return approximately $7.0 billion to shareholders through dividends and repurchases over the next two years, with approximately $5.5 billion in 2019 and approximately $1.5 billion in 2020. eBay announced the initiation of a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share, with the first quarterly dividend to be paid on or about March 20, 2019 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 1, 2019. The company also announced an increase in share repurchase authorization by an additional $4.0 billion with no expiration, with an expected 2019 share repurchase of approximately $5.0 billion.

For full year 2019, the company expects net revenue between $10.7 billion and $10.9 billion, representing organic FX-Neutral growth of 1% - 3%, with GAAP earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $1.83 - $1.93 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $2.62 - $2.68.

For first quarter, the company expects net revenue between $2.55 billion and $2.60 billion, representing organic FX-Neutral growth of 0% - 2%, with GAAP earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $0.40 - $0.44 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share from continuing operations in the range of $0.62 - $0.64.

Fourth-quarter non-GAAP net income from continuing operations was $670 million, or $0.71 per diluted share. Revenue was $2.9 billion, increasing 6% on both an as-reported basis and a foreign exchange (FX) neutral basis, primarily driven by gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $24.6 billion, up 1% on an as-reported basis and 2% on a FX-Neutral basis. In the fourth quarter, eBay grew active buyers by 4% across its platforms, for a total of 179 million global active buyers.