Wedbush Begins Coverage on eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY)

Investment analysts at Wedbush assumed coverage on shares of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $135.00 price target on the e-commerce company’s stock. Wedbush’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 20.47% from the company’s previous close.

EBAY has been the subject of several other reports. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on shares of eBay from $97.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $98.00 target price on shares of eBay in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of eBay from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $124.00 price target on shares of eBay in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of eBay in a report on Friday, June 12th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $110.52.

eBay Price Performance

EBAY opened at $112.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.75 billion, a PE ratio of 25.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $111.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.35. eBay has a 52-week low of $76.85 and a 52-week high of $119.31.

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The e-commerce company reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. eBay had a return on equity of 46.11% and a net margin of 17.58%.The firm’s revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.38 earnings per share. eBay has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.090-1.140 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that eBay will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jamie Iannone sold 11,110 shares of eBay stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.33, for a total transaction of $1,259,096.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 275,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,214,595.23. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Jordan Douglas Bradle Sweetnam sold 1,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.61, for a total transaction of $116,766.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 32,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,716,399.06. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 76,012 shares of company stock worth $8,747,852 in the last three months. 0.67% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of eBay by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,613,332 shares of the e-commerce company’s stock worth $5,018,121,000 after acquiring an additional 468,833 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in eBay by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,020,923 shares of the e-commerce company’s stock worth $785,722,000 after purchasing an additional 692,805 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its position in eBay by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 7,748,177 shares of the e-commerce company’s stock valued at $674,866,000 after purchasing an additional 384,570 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in eBay by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,901,415 shares of the e-commerce company’s stock valued at $446,042,000 after purchasing an additional 80,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in eBay by 0.8% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,722,253 shares of the e-commerce company’s stock worth $338,799,000 after buying an additional 30,761 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.48% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting eBay

Here are the key news stories impacting eBay this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush initiated coverage on eBay with an Outperform rating and a $135 price target, implying meaningful upside from current levels. This kind of analyst support can help reinforce investor confidence in the stock. Benzinga coverage
• Positive Sentiment: The UK competition watchdog cleared eBay’s $1.2 billion Depop acquisition, removing a regulatory hurdle and signaling progress on eBay’s growth-by-acquisition strategy. Retail Insight Network article
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage also noted that eBay currently has a “Hold” consensus from brokerages, which suggests analysts remain split on the near-term outlook despite the recent bullish target. American Banking News article
• Neutral Sentiment: A product-related mention about a classic Camaro being listed on eBay is not a meaningful company-specific catalyst for the stock. MSN article
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports highlighted GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s renewed push to acquire eBay, including his comment that the company is “coming for eBay one way or another.” While an acquisition premium can sometimes support a stock, the repeated takeover pressure and talk of appealing directly to shareholders may also create uncertainty and volatility for eBay investors. Yahoo Finance article

About eBay

eBay Inc is a global e-commerce company that operates an online marketplace connecting individual consumers and businesses for the sale and purchase of new, used and collectible goods. Founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and headquartered in San Jose, California, eBay grew from its early auction-style site into a diversified platform offering both auction-format listings and fixed-price “Buy It Now” transactions. The company completed an initial public offering in the late 1990s and has since evolved its platform and services to support a broad range of product categories and buyer preferences.

The company’s core business centers on its marketplace platform, which provides listing, search and transaction capabilities for millions of items across consumer goods, electronics, fashion, collectibles and more.