EBAY eBay Inc

By Greg Bensinger 

EBay Inc. posted its fourth straight quarter of declining year-over-year sales and issued lackluster financial guidance in a troubling sign for the newly independent company.

Shares of eBay, down 6.9% over the past three months, fell 7.4% to $24.47 in after-hours trading.

The San Jose, Calif., online marketplace on Wednesday reported $2.32 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, which comprises the lucrative holiday shopping season. That total is down $1 million from the year-ago period but in-line with the average analyst estimate.

This marks eBay's second quarter of earnings without its PayPal payments subsidiary, which it spun off as its own publicly traded company last summer. In some respects, eBay is returning to its roots as a pure marketplace after having sold off its Enterprise division and other assets, such as its stake in Craigslist Inc.

Under Chief Executive Devin Wenig, eBay is embracing more cost-conscious consumers, while emphasizing the unique and hard-to-find inventory for which it became known. The retailer had tried for years to bulk up its new offerings from well-known brands.

EBay's net income fell to $477 million from $1.02 billion. Excluding discontinued operations, the company's earnings from continuing operations fell to $523 million, or 43 cents a share, from $729 million, or 59 cents a share, a year ago.

When excluding other one-time items, the company had earnings of 50 cents a share, in line with the average analyst estimate.

The retailer said it had 162 million active buyers on the site, above the 159 million buyers it reported for the third quarter.

For the first quarter, eBay said it expects per-share earnings excluding certain items of between 43 cents and 45 cents on revenue between $2.05 billion and $2.10 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 48 cents a share on revenue of $2.16 billion.

For 2016, it sees per-share earnings excluding certain items of between $1.82 and $1.87 on revenue between $8.5 billion and $8.8 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.98 a share on revenue of $8.99 billion.

Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 27, 2016 16:51 ET (21:51 GMT)

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