(Reuters) — Ecommerce company eBay on Wednesday forecast current-quarter profit largely below expectations, sending its shares down as much as 4.5 percent in extended trading.
Ebay said it expects current-quarter adjusted profit of 43-45 cents per share. Analysts on average were expecting 47 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
The company said gross merchandise volume — the total value of all goods sold on its websites — rose 2.4 percent to $20.95 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, 2017. But the result fell short of analysts’ average estimate of $21.06 billion, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.
EBay has been facing relentless competition from much larger rival Amazon.
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To lure more shoppers and better compete with Amazon as well as traditional retailers, the company has made several changes to its platform.
The San Jose, California-based company’s net income rose to $1.04 billion, or 94 cents per share in the first quarter, from $482 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 49 cents per share, beating analysts’ average expectation of 48 cents per share.
Revenue rose 3.7 percent to $2.22 billion.
(Reporting by Pushkala A and Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)
