eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s Marketplace ex-Auto GMV is expected to grow by at least 11%, when the company announces results today, after the market closes. Morgan Stanley research analysts believe that the company will report solid performance over the last quarter, following favorable foreign exchange conditions, strong eCommerce, and channel data points. The world’s leading commerce infrastructure provider operates in four market segments, namely, Marketplaces, Payments, GSI, and X.Commerce.
According to Morgan Stanley Analysts, the four market segments provide a strong foundation for enabling local and national merchants to sell their products more effectively. Marketplace growth is expected to boom, as it now has a better search functionality, with additional SKUs, and the analysts also feel that PayPal growth will continue off- and-on eBay, with increased customer adoption from the updated platform with new features.
Additionally, Ebay has updated its Marketplace logo, which also includes a refresh of the layout and a Pinterest like feed, as well as increased picture size, and a streamlined checkout process. However, the analysts do point out that there is a likelihood of short term headwinds, which might affect the revenues and earnings.
The company’s projected 11% rise will be the sixth double digit growth on the trot, while PayPal TPV is expected to grow by 20%, which is pretty much in line with Q2 metrics. The eCommerce giant is expected to generate $3.391 billion in revenue, while its EBITDA for Q3 is estimated to be about $1.14 billion. Earnings per share will be $0.54, according to Morgan Stanley research analysts’ estimates.
The analysts have overweight rating on eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) stock, and a price target of $58 per share, which they base on the prospective near-term payments, as PayPal pushes up key growth areas, like cross-border transactions, Bill Me Later, mobile, local, and virtual goods.
Additionally, the improvements done on Marketplace are expected to help boost the growth of the business unit, while acquisition strategy should strengthen multi-channel retail offering and mobile/POS capabilities, notes the report.
eBay is expected to benefit from favorable industry trends, as Comscore data indicates significant levels of growth in various key segments. Both overall and fixed price GMV accelerated in 3Q from 2Q; Overall Marketplaces grew an average of 25% in 3Q, up from 23% in 2Q. Notably, July grew 28%, the highest ever month of growth for eBay.
Fixed Price segment grew 29% in 3Q, a slight acceleration from 28% in 2Q. Comscore estimates eCommerce ex-travel grew 17% and 16% in July and August, respectively.
At the time of this writing, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) stock was trading at $48.43 per share, up $0.19, or a 0.39% rise from yesterday’s close.
