EBAY eBay Inc

By Sebastian Herrera 

EBay Inc. is scheduled to announce its second-quarter earnings after markets close Wednesday. Here's what you need to know:

EARNINGS FORECAST: EBay forecasts income from continuing operations of 61 cents to 63 cents a share, compared with 53 cents a year earlier. Analysts polled by Refinitiv on average expect eBay to earn 62 cents a share.

REVENUE FORECAST: Analysts on average project quarterly revenue of $2.67 billion, compared with $2.64 billion a year earlier. EBay said it expects between $2.64 billion and $2.69 billion.

STRATEGIC REVIEW: While it's unlikely eBay will discuss the review of operations it announced in March, investors are watching closely as the company evaluates whether it could sell or spin off assets such as its classifieds business and StubHub. EBay faces pressure from activist investors Elliott Management Corp. and Starboard Value LP, which pushed it to add two new directors to its board in March and a third later this year.

ADVERTISING SHIFT: EBay has been altering its advertisement business. It recently shut down its third-party ad network that let merchants advertise on other sites to focus on promoted listings on its own site. During its first quarter 800,000 sellers used eBay's promoted listings, more than doubling ad revenue for the quarter. Investors will be looking for progress on this business-model shift.

MANAGED PAYMENTS: Beginning in late 2018, eBay began making drastic changes to its managed-payment systems, allowing sellers to manage their selling, payments and other services within one account and accepting different forms of payment. EBay said $220 million in gross merchandise volume--the value of goods sold on its websites--was moved through the new managed-payment platform during its first quarter, 61% more than in the previous quarter. Analysts predict total volume for the second quarter to be $22.9 billion, down about 3% from a year earlier. Any decline could be partly offset by money earned from transactions.

Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 17, 2019 06:14 ET (10:14 GMT)

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