EBay sees current-quarter revenue above view as more people shop online

(Reuters) – EBay Inc forecast current-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as the e-commerce company benefited from a surge in online orders with people staying indoors because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus forced millions of Americans to shelter indoors, leading to a huge increase of online shopping and orders for e-commerce companies including eBay, Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc’s online business.

The company said it expects second-quarter revenue in the range of $2.38 billion to $2.48 billion, while analysts were expecting $2.32 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

EBay, which has worked to make its platform simpler to use through grouped listings and personal recommendations, said active buyers grew 2% to 174 million in the first quarter.

First quarter revenue fell 2% to $2.37 billion, but was above analysts’ average estimate of $2.32 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net income from continuing operations fell 6% to $485 million for the first quarter ended March 31, from a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 77 cents per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 72 cents.

(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Bernard Orr)