Shares of the online auction site eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) have been surging today after positive remarks from Banc of America Securities analyst Brian J. Pitz, who stated that the company is on track for a "solid" first quarter to the year. Pitz made his remarks after analyzing the company's recent proprietary listings and conversion rate tracking data. As a result of his findings, Pitz gives the stock a price target of $38, and lifted his revenue forecast for the quarter from $2.03 billion up to $2.08 billion. This is slightly higher than the $2.06 billion that Wall Street is expecting to see, and as a result shares of the e-commerce giant have surged 5% today to $30.96, and hit a high earlier in the session up at $31.21.
eBay has been in the news a lot lately, but for the most part, it has not been positive. The company has been fighting off speculation that a seller's strike late last month that extended into the first week of March had had any material impact on the site's listing numbers. Some have argued that the strike led to a 13% drop in product listings, but eBay has adamantly denied any impact what-so-ever, and instead has insisted that a promotion that ran right before the strike had artificially inflated product listing numbers that were used to compute the strike's effectiveness.
eBay sellers are already planning their next strike, which is tentatively planned to get under way May 1, and are confident that the recent strike made a difference.
Today's report definitely comes as welcome news to eBay stock holders out there. The past week has seen the stock rebounding a bit, but looking at a 6 month chart shows just how hard shares have been hit over the past half year, with shares hitting their 52 week low of $25.10 on the 17th of this month.
Let's close by taking a look at a 6 month chart to better illustrate just how hard the stock has been hit as of late:
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-28-2008 @ 1:53PM
Mozelle said...
All this talk of strike and striking by so called power sellers is bogus! Who are these striking big time power sellers anyway? Have them come forward and identify themselves to the world and eBay! I want to know who these million dollar big guys are, that supposedly are losing money, lol.
People with 400 feedback are powersellers. Anyone selling 100 to 200 items a month is a power-seller. lol. Being a power-seller means nothing! Millions and millions on eBay are power-sellers.
eBay is fine! A few hundred disgruntled sellers are causing all the trouble on the internet! They are nobody's.
eBay competition most likely! lol. Or someone who can't make it on eBay anymore. Money is tight, people are not buying, and they blame eBay for not selling their stuff, lol.
They should go away, and media should stop reporting trash about power-sellers striking....Most everyone selling on eBay is a power-seller.
Give it a rest already.
3-28-2008 @ 4:35PM
Mike said...
Mozelle,
Every time you mention Ebay and disgruntled sellers in the same post, you often refer to them as trouble makers or nobodys, etc. Why is it that you always try to marginalize these disgruntled sellers? Is there a reason that you speak this way? Do you have something against these disgruntled sellers? Are you pissed off because they refuse to be silenced? Why do you laugh at them? To me, there is nothing funny about the continuing exodus of sellers to other venues. Wouldn't Ebay's best strategy be a strategy that seeks to retain their sellers rather than drive them away? The fact that sellers are leaving indicates that all is not well in Ebay land.
On another note, you suggest above that powersellers, are not likely to strike, and that such a strike by powersellers is bogus. I tend to agree with you to a certain extent, but only to the extent that larger powersellers are less likely to strike than smaller powersellers, and smaller powersellers are less likely to strike than non-powersellers. Non-powersellers are probably the most likely sellers to strike.
I have no idea how many Ebay sellers out there are cutting their listings or planning on leaving, but I bet its a lot more than "a few hundred" that you speak of above.