SAN JOSE (dpa-AFX) - Online auctioneer eBay Inc. (EBAY) said Wednesday after the markets closed that its third quarter profit rose 14% from last year, helped by strong revenue growths at both its global ecommerce and online payments businesses. The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, came in line with analysts' expectations. However, the company issued a fourth quarter earnings forecast range, the mid-point of which was below analysts' current consensus estimate. At the same time, the company raised its earnings outlook for the full year 2011.
The San Jose, California-based company reported GAAP net income of $490.5 million or $0.37 per share, compared to $431.9 million or $0.33 per share for the year-ago quarter.
Excluding items, non-GAAP net income for the third quarter was $628.2 million or $0.48 per share, compared to $530.6 million or $0.40 per share in the prior year quarter.
On average, 27 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.48 per share for the third quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
GAAP operating margin for the quarter declined to 18.1% from 21.8% a year ago, while non-GAAP operating margin fell to 25.3% from 28.7% last year, mainly due to the impact of acquisitions and business mix, partially offset by productivity gains.
Revenue for the third quarter rose 32% to $2.97 billion from $2.25 billion in the same quarter last year. Twenty-five analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.91 billion for the third quarter.
Net revenues from the Payments business unit, which includes online payment service PayPal, and short-term credit service Bill Me Later, increased 32% from a year ago to $1.12 billion.
PayPal ended the quarter with 103.0 million active registered accounts, a 14% increase over last year. PayPal's net total payment volume (TPV) grew 31% to $29.3 billion in the third quarter.
Third quarter net revenues from the company's Marketplaces business, which consists of eBay, Shopping.com, StubHub, eBay Classifieds and other e-commerce sites, rose 17% to $1.65 billion.
Gross merchandise volume excluding vehicles increased 16% year over year to $14.7 billion.
The GSI segment contributed net revenue of $203 million in the latest quarter. eBay completed the acquisition of GSI Commerce for nearly $2.4 billion in June.
U.S. net revenues grew 35% to $1.43 billion, while International net revenues rose 29% to $1.54 billion.
ebay repurchased about $33 million of its common stock during the third quarter.
In August, eBay Inc. (EBAY) completed its acquisition of Zong, a provider of payments through mobile carrier billing, and Magento, Inc., the creator of open source ecommerce platform Magento.
There were also media reports that EBay is looking at acquisition opportunities in Japan and China to expand in the Asian markets. With China having a significant internet penetration, the potential for growth is believed to be exponential. At present, the e-commerce business in China is dominated by Alibaba Group and E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc.
Looking forward to the fourth quarter, the company forecast net revenues of $3.20 billion to $3.35 billion, GAAP earnings of $1.47 to $1.53 per share and non-GAAP earnings of $0.55 to $0.58 per share. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $0.58 per share on revenue of $3.30 billion for the fourth quarter.
For the full year 2011, eBay now expects net revenues of $11.59 billion to $11.60 billion, GAAP earnings of $2.42 to $2.48 per share and non-GAAP earnings of $1.98 to $2.01 per share. Previously, the company expected net revenues of $11.30 billion to $11.60 billion, GAAP earnings of $2.41 to $2.44 per share and non-GAAP earnings of $1.97 to $2.00 per share.
Analysts currently expect the company to earn $2.00 per share on revenue of $11.51 billion for the full year 2011.
eBay shares, which have traded in a range of $25.13 to $35.35 over the past year, closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $33.18, down 69 cents or 2.04%. The stock is currently losing $1.44 or 4.34% in after hours trading.
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