PALO ALTO, California -- Internet auctioneer eBay on Tuesday posted quarterly earnings that more than doubled from a year earlier on a 94 percent gain in revenue fueled by strong growth in international auctions and its online payment service.
San Jose, California-based eBay also raised its earnings and revenue targets for both the current quarter and 2003.
EBay shares pushed to a three-year high in after-hours trade, further stretching a valuation that has drawn criticism from some analysts who question whether the company's fast growth can be sustained.
The results from eBay, which has become the online marketplace of choice for everything from collectible spoons to Caribbean islands, sent its shares up more than 3 percent in after-hours trade to $92.23, their highest level since May 2000.
The stock, which has gained almost 36 percent since the start of the year, had closed down nearly 2 percent at $89.22 in active trade on the Nasdaq ahead of the earnings release.
For the first quarter, eBay posted net income of $104.2 million, or 32 cents per share compared with $47.6 million, or 17 cents per share a year earlier.
Revenues rose to $476.5 million from $245.1 million, on strong U.S. and international growth and transaction revenues from its PayPal unit, which it acquired in the fourth-quarter of last year.
The results topped eBay's forecast for net earnings of 26 cents per diluted share on revenue of $440 million. Analysts polled by Wall Street tracking firm Thomson First Call had seen revenues in the range of $418.7 million to $477.8 million.
Rajiv Dutta, eBay's chief financial officer, told Reuters he expected the company to continue on its growth path by attracting more users, who will move more merchandise via its online selling platform.
"EBay is becoming more of a mainstream destination," he said.
Dutta said the company had held down costs ahead of the U.S.-led war in Iraq but then benefited when the impact of war on its transactions proved smaller than expected.
The company guided to second-quarter earnings as high as 30 cents per share on revenue of as much as $500 million, up from its prior call for per-share earnings of 27 cents on revenue of $460 million. EBay also boosted its 2003 outlook to call for earnings of up to $1.27 per share on revenues as high as $2.05 billion.
Those estimates are still conservative relative to Wall Street expectations. On average, as tracked by Thomson First Call, analysts expect second-quarter earnings of 32 cents per share and full-year earnings of $1.35 per share.
EBay shares currently trade at about 70 times the company's raised 2003 earnings estimate. For comparison, shares of the world's No. 1 software maker, Microsoft, trade at around 26 times estimated earnings for its current fiscal year ending June.
The broad market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, is trading at about 17 times forecast 2003 earnings.
EBay's CFO, Dutta, said the company likely would not be hurt if cash-crunched states are successful in their push to collect sales taxes from out-of-state retailers, but said such a move would place an unfair burden on eBay's mom-and-pop sellers who use the online marketplace as a place to do business.
