eBay Drops on Weak Guidance

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- eBay (EBAY) shares fell 4.6% to $51.06 in after-hours trading after the company posted earnings that missed Wall Street expectations.

The San Jose based e-commerce giant posted third-quarter earnings of 64 cents a share on $3.89 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for the company to earn 63 cents a share on $3.9 billion in sales.

The company noted Enabled Commerce Volume (ECV) grew 21% for the quarter, to $52 billion. Marketplaces saw a year-over-year revenue increase of 12% to $2 billion, adding 3.9 million active users during the quarter, ending the time frame with 124 million users.  Gross merchandise volume rose 13% to $18 billion.

PayPal, which has come under attack from upstarts like Square, saw a healthy 19% increase in revenue to $1.6 billion during the quarter.  The payments platform ended the quarter with 137 million accounts, up 5 million sequentially, and 17% year over year. Net total payment volume grew 25% to $44 billion.

Mobile commerce volume was exceptionally strong during the quarter, up 75% year-over-year, with downloads now exceeding 200 million. The company's mobile apps added 3.2 million new customers.

"We delivered strong third quarter results, with mobile driving a significant portion of our new user growth and continuing to transform how consumers shop and pay around the world," said John Donahoe, President and CEO, eBay in the press release. "Our scale and experience, the strength of our global commerce platforms, our technology assets and our mobile commerce capabilities strongly position us to be a leader in the commerce revolution under way. In the past 12 months we have enabled $200 billion of commerce volume, a 20 percent increase in a fairly lackluster macro environment. That growth demonstrates the strength of our core businesses and our power as a partner, not a competitor, to merchants, brands and retailers."

For the fourth-quarter, eBay e! xpects to earn between 79 cents and 81 cents per share, with sales between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion.  Analysts surveyed expect eBay to earn 83 cents per share on $4.64 billion in revenue.

Shares of eBay closed the regular session higher, gaining 0.83% to finish at $53.52.

Written by Chris Ciaccia.