Today eBay reported its first quarter financial performance, including revenue of $3.7 billion, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.63. The street had expected earnings per share of $0.62, on revenue of 3.8 billion. On a GAAP basis, by which we mean based on normal accounting rules, eBay had net income of $677 million, or $0.51 per share.
The company had revenue in Q1 2012 of $3.3 billion. In the final quarter of 2012, its most recent sequential quarter, eBay had revenue of $4 billion.
For this quarter, PayPal’s usership grew by 5 million accounts. Total payment throughput — net total payment volume — rose 21% to $41 billion. PayPal’s revenue for the quarter was $1.5 billion, up 18%. In its release, eBay claims that its mobile applications have seen 162 million downloads. This pales, by way of comparison, to Yahoo’s recently reported 300 million active mobile users.
eBay’s Marketplace business segment posted in-line growth, expanding its revenues 13% to $2.0 billion. Marketplace itself finished the quarter with 116 million active users, up 13% during the quarter. That gain in absolute terms represents 3.9 million new active users.
The company’s operating margin rose to 21.3%, from 19.9% in the first quarter of 2012. eBay is accelerating its repurchase of its own shares, spending $476 million in the quarter on such activities. This is up sharply from the $256 million eBay spent in the final quarter of 2012 buying its own shares. Red Hat, another technology company, recently announced a new $300 million buyback program, its third sequential nine-figure purchase of its own equity.
In normal trading, eBay was broadly down, slipping just under 2%. In after-hours trading, the company is down. The company reports that it expects to see revenue of between $3.8 and $3.9 billion in the second quarter of the year, with non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.61 to $0.63.
Top Image Credit: Brian Cantoni
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