American e-commerce giant eBay reported on Thursday their fourth quarter earnings report that met investor expectations leading their shares to surge by as much as 9%.
For 2016, the company with the largest online auction platform posted a record high trading price of $33.19 per share, although it traded at around $29.99 a day prior to the release of the earnings report.
eBay shares soared as reported revenue rose by 3% to $2.4 billion posting an earnings per share of 54 cents meeting Wall Street expectations.
The company also reported that active buyers on their website were around 2 million higher during the fourth quarter from a total of 165 million users to 167 million users by the ends of 2016. Total goods and products sold on eBay’s website rose up by 2% to $22.3 billion. One of the company’s top sellers, StubHub has reportedly sold around $22.3 billion worth of products or merchandise, 2% higher from the previous period.
The e-commerce giant then issued a slightly weaker profit guidance for the first quarter of 2017 to amount from $2.17 billion to $2.21 billion and their earnings to range around 46 to 48 cents per share while consensus estimate for the first quarter of the year is a revenue of $2.2 billion and an EPS of 50 cents.
eBay also issued a profit guidance for the whole year with expected revenue at around $9.3 billion to $9.5 billion. Analysts’ estimates for the company’s overall revenue for the year is $9.36 billion.
According to the eBay chief executive officer Devin Wenig, the company has become one of the top consumer shopping destinations in the world as eBay was recorded to be the most visited e-Commerce site in the US during the holiday season last 2016 given the solid fourth quarter performance. Wenig also added that he intends to advance eBay’s business strategy and accelerate the growth that they were able to achieve last 2016.
On Wednesday’s extended trading, shares of the company surged by as much as 8% to $32.65 as the earnings report showed a positive outlook on the company’s current status .
Physical store and retailers like Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) and Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS), meanwhile, have reported disappointing quarterly reports compared to eBay’s confirming the increasing popularity of online shopping. According to Edward Jones Research analyst Josh Olson, the company is evidently confident that the California-based company sales are still to grow at a more advanced rate. Overall sales growth for the company during the fourth quarter is at 4%.