posted on October 15, 2007 07:16:06 PM
I bought eBay stock a long, long time ago, just 30 shares & it split so many times I now have 360
I should have sold it when they bought Skype, I'm still ahead, but it could have been better. Guess I'll just hang in & hope to make more or maybe lose it all. Who knows.
posted on October 15, 2007 08:53:32 PM
I would not buy ebay stock. ebay is run like a feifdom. All activity is meant to keep stock value up, for the benefit of those who have been granted stock options. You need a score card to keep track of the insider activity.
posted on October 15, 2007 11:45:48 PM
We bought eBay several years ago too. Initial investment approx $9,000 and after all the splits, we have 696 shares. At today's close of $39, we have $27,144---not bad in roughly nine years.
Since we're semi-retired now, I wouldn't buy more but if it gets higher and splits again, I might buy a little more. I personally think it still is going to be around for a good while yet. Fortunately our majority holdings are in our ROTH accounts so no capital gains when we do sell.
posted on October 16, 2007 03:57:25 AM
This isn't exactly an answer to your question, but I don't think that individual investors generally should buy individual stocks unless they've got some special insight into a particular stock and they are doing so with "risk" capital (i.e., extra money after their core 3-6 million).
The history of individual stock ownership is that they seldom do better than index fund ownership, and usually considerably worse. There are three genius investors (Ben Stein recently wrote about them) that are exceptions: Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, John Bogle (ex of Vanguard, the best friend most investors ever had), and Jim Rogers (unfortunately, investing for himself and a few very rich friends). Buying Berkshire Hathaway is fine even for core holdings, but pricy ($126,200 today, even the B shares are $4,208).
If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and open an account at Vanguard. Invest in a low-cost index fund there. I've put in monthly amounts (after an initial investment mid-2005) in the International Value Fund and $100k of investment has returned $51k, even after the recent shaky times.
posted on October 16, 2007 06:31:48 AM
Hmm, let's see: Spend $100,000 on eBay stock and pay taxes on gains OR put $100,000 into depreciable commercial real estate/rental housing and trade up properties through a series of 1031 tax-free exchanges.
Bit of a no-brainer there.
We own stock, but only that which we received essentially for free as option grants and since neither of us have ever worked for eBay...
My sister does the commercial real estate thing; I don't have the time and energy to get involved, so I prefer a more passive investment. It requires too much expertise for me to get involved; even commercial real estate can lose money if you don't know what you're doing.
It does raise a related point to me, however. Especially in this environment, it makes sense to pay off your mortgage before investing in stocks. If nothing else, you'll sleep really well at night.
posted on October 16, 2007 09:53:32 AM
I would probably buy in and sell when it reaches $50, as the chart is trending up for now - but beyond that, you are betting on their future earnings and their business decisions have been poor lately - particularly the Skype purchase.
Their best returns have been in the core auctions and Paypal, both with which they continue to abuse the sellers paying their fees - one wonders how long until they see a backlash.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on October 18, 2007 09:00:14 AM
NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Shares of eBay Inc. slid more than 6% in morning trading Thursday amid worries on Wall Street that the company's core online auction business is slowing.
Late Wednesday, eBay (EBAY) reported results for the third quarter. The company swung to a loss due to a large write-off of its investment into Internet telephony carrier Skype, but the results excluding the charge came in well above analysts expectations for the period.
However, the company also warned that it planned to step up spending in the next year, and that it would cut listing fees for the up-coming holiday season in an effort to stimulate growth in auction listings.
Shares of eBay, which had jumped more than 20% in the last six weeks, were trading down $2.44 at $38.17 early Thursday.
"We think eBay is facing a worst-case scenario in its business, due to 2% transaction volume growth (and potentially declining soon), user dis-engagement, higher ad costs, declining purchase frequency, rising seller costs and operating margin pressures," said Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank in a report, in which he cut his rating on eBay shares to sell from hold.
Patel believes that higher advertising costs and "less user loyalty" are pressuring eBay and could hurt earnings growth "in the next several quarters."
Jordan Rohan of RBC Capital Markets, who has a sector perform -- or neutral -- rating on the stock, said the company's latest results "answered some of the lingering questions" about revenue growth but raised others.
"The company seems to be entering a period of accelerated investment via isolated fee reductions and product development to fend off competition," Rohan wrote in a report.
A bullish view came from Steve Weinstein of Pacific Crest, who kept his buy rating and boosted his price target on the stock to $54 from $42.
"Despite the decline in listings, we believe the underlying trends and the composition of the listings point to an improving business," Weinstein wrote in a note, citing that listings in the big markets such as Germany and the U.K. are accelerating.
"We believe that the reacceleration of core listings reflects improvements made to the site, and that as these improvements continue and are expanded to more markets, momentum should continue," he said.
Earnings beat targets despite Skype charges
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, eBay reported a net loss of $935.6 million, or 69 cents a share, compared with earnings of $280.9 million, or 20 cents a share, for the same period last year.
The results include a previously disclosed charge of $1.39 billion related to the company's acquisition of Skype, a provider of voice-over-IP telephone services that was taken over by eBay in September of 2005. Also included are charges related to stock-option compensation and other items.
Excluding the charges, eBay said earnings would have been $564 million, or 41 cents per share, for the quarter. Analysts were expecting earnings of 33 cents a share, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Financial.
Revenue grew 30% to $1.89 billion for the quarter from $1.45 billion last year. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.83 billion for the period.
The company saw an uptick in gross merchandise volume (GMV), which grew 14% from last year's third quarter. This was an improvement from the second quarter, which saw the GMV-growth-rate hit a low point of 12%.
Still, the GMV figure represented a decline from last year's third quarter, when listings grew 17%.
The company's PayPal unit saw revenue of $470 million for the quarter, up 35% from last year. Revenues at Skype totaled $98 million, up 96% from last year. The service had 246 million registered users by the end of the period.
A mixed outlook
During a conference call with analysts, eBay executives outlined plans to step up spending in the next year. The company said it will "continue to invest in significant enhancements to the buyer experience" in the hopes of drawing more customers to the site.
"It's important to note that these investments will all go right to our users in the form of a better experience, better support and better pricing strategies designed to maximize value for our sellers," CEO Meg Whitman said on the call.
The company's near-term outlook was ahead of expectations. EBay expects earnings for the fourth quarter to come in between 39 cents and 41 cents a share, with revenue between $2.1 billion and $2.15 billion.
Analysts were expecting next-quarter earnings of 38 cents a share on revenue of $2.06 billion.
However, the company may see its profitability pinched next year as it steps up investments to improve its core business. That, coupled with the fact that its faster-growing businesses at PayPal and Skype offer lower profit margins, could put pressure on the bottom line for the year.
"We'll also face some operating margin headwinds entering 2008, as the competitive environment continues to intensify and our investments in growth opportunities accelerate," CFO Bob Swan said on the call.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-18-07 1146ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
posted on October 18, 2007 03:01:48 PM
Have you visited Bidville,Epier and Ioffer lately?
Plenty of Ebay sellers parking their items there for free!
*
Lets all stop whining !
*
posted on October 19, 2007 01:31:58 PM
The time to buy would have been 6-7 years ago and the time to sell would have been 2 years ago.
IMHO, I see eBay as a losing proposition for many reasons. Ebay's faulty website being the major problem. Falling sell through rates, the near impossibility to list items unless you use a third party listing service like Vendio.
Also what the housing market did to people a few years back, which is now coming to head with record setting forclosures cannot be good for eBay, at least for the next few years.
posted on October 23, 2007 06:12:32 PM
"This isn't exactly an answer to your question, but I don't think that individual investors generally should buy individual stocks unless they've got some special insight into a particular stock and they are doing so with "risk" capital (i.e., extra money after their core 3-6 million)."
Yeah, this is how I feel. I buy mutual funds when I am investing, I buy individual stocks when I am gambling. Thankfully I learned that distinction during the dotcom runup and bust. I will still buy individual stocks for fun every so often, but it is pure speculation and gambling. With my mutual fund accounts, I know that I will do well over the long run.
As far as ebay, no way...I've got 1 word for them...well, 2 words...Desperate and Stupid. Ebay has moved so far away from its core business that I don't know if there is going back. I've posted in another thread that my own experience shows me going from over 90% of my online business run through ebay a few years ago, to about 10% today.
posted on October 23, 2007 09:16:44 PM
Thank you all. I wanted to get a feel if the recent ebay strategies were made to benefit their stockholders, which it has an obligation to, or to benefit their top executives. With the Skype write-offs, after I originally posted this query, and your feedback, I am inclined to lean toward the latter.
Caroline