What happened
Even by the standards of an awful trading session for stocks generally, eBay (EBAY -1.39%) shares took a massive hit on Thursday. The storied e-commerce company published its latest set of quarterly earnings, and some of its numbers greatly dismayed investors.
So what
Optimistically describing its first-quarter performance as "better than expected," eBay unveiled those figures after market hours on Wednesday. These showed that the company earned $2.5 billion in revenue, which was 6% lower than the corresponding period of 2021. The decline in gross merchandise volume (GMV) was even steeper; it fell 20% to $19.4 billion.
Image source: Getty Images.
Non-GAAP (adjusted) net profit also suffered a decline, tumbling at a 16% clip to land at $625 million, or $1.05 per share.
Those headline numbers more or less met the average analyst estimates of $2.5 billion on the top line and $1.03 per share for adjusted net profit.
Reinforcing its optimistic view -- despite mentioning the "current macro[economic] headwinds" buffeting its performance -- eBay also declared a fresh quarterly dividend. This is to be $0.22 per share, and it will be paid on June 17 to investors of record as of June 1. That amount yields 1.7% on the latest stock share price, and it matches the company's previous disbursement. Before that, it paid $0.18.
Now what
Investors were probably more disheartened by eBay's guidance than anything else. The company said that for the current quarter, it's expecting $2.35 billion to $2.4 billion in revenue and per-share earnings of $0.87 to $0.91. Both ranges are below the collective analyst projections of $2.54 billion and $1.01, respectively.
As for its full-year 2022 guidance, eBay is forecasting $9.6 billion to $9.9 billion on the top line. But those prognosticators are modeling $10.4 billion. It's the same for per-share earnings; eBay believes it will post $3.90 to $4.10, while analysts are estimating $4.34.
