Is Ebay Fairly Priced?

Ebay (NASDAQ:EBAY) is a large cap stock with a market capitalization of $40.55 billion. The company is a commerce company, which operates through its Marketplace, StubHub and Classifieds platforms.

Ebay is located to the special retail industry, a part of the services sector. The biggest competitors are Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) and Wayfair (NYSE:W). Here is a full list of my peer holdings for ebay:



The ebay stock is up 41.14% over the past year which is a clear outperformance compared to the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq. 

Source: Googlefinance.com

EBAY outperformed the market in recent months. Is it now a good time to buy, not to buy, wait or sell the stock? In this article, I will check the financial and valuation figures of the company and give a clear statement to the current situation.

I developed a simple system to evaluate the financial health of a company. It looks at the following six key metrics...

- Profitability (+)

The profitability of EBAY is good. The operating margin of EBAY amounts to 24.90% compared to 12.58% of the peer average.



- Debt Situation (-)

I use the debt-to-equity ratio as qualified measure to evaluate the debt situation.

The debt-to-equity ratio for Ebay amounted to 0.77. Compared to the peer ratio of just 0.6, the online auction company seems to be working with a higher leverage, which is in general bad due to a higher financial risk.



- Dividend Yield (-)

Ebay pays no dividends. The peer average offers a ratio of 0.21%. Most of the peers don’t pay a dividend. Mercadolibre (NASDAQ:MELI) is the only company with quarter dividends.



- P/E Ratio (+)

The current price-to-earnings ratio of EBAY amounts to 5.3. Compared to figures from the peer group, which are valuated with an average ratio of 72.71, Ebay looks cheaper than other companies in the industry.

This impression is also intact when we look at the forward P/E ratios. Ebay’s forward P/E is 16.83.



- Capital Returns (+)

Capital returns are important for investors. Two most used ratios to evaluate the capital efficiency of a company are the return on equity and return on investment.

All return ratios have better values than the peer average.



- Sales and EPS Growth (-)

Sales and earnings growth figures are also very important for investors. Quarter over Quarter, Ebay is losing market share with a sales growth of just 3.7% compared to an peer average value of 29.26%.


Ebay receives a "Hold Positive" rating

Ebay passes three of my six key metrics. Similar to my investment rating scheme, EBAY receives a Hold Positive Rating from me.

Rating	# Metrics
Strong Buy	5 +
Buy	4 +
Hold Positive	3 +
Hold Negative	2 +
Sell	1 +

What do you think about ebay? Is it a buy, hold or sell?

20 Cheapest Large Cap Buyback Opportunities

It’s that time of year again — the time of year when companies ramp-up their stock buyback activity as they realize they’ll have enough cash to fund those efforts, and/or just to make sure they reach their internal buyback goals.

When corporations are profitable and established, they tend to return capital to shareholders. This can be achieved via stock buybacks to shrink the float and to support the stock, or it can be done via one-time dividends or by raising their annualized quarterly dividends. Both are activities I do cover on this blog on a regular basis.

Many investors love the cash flow from dividends. After all, dividends can contribute up to 50% of total returns through time. Other investors prefer for companies to buy back their common stock. But a good alternative is to combine both shareholder friendly activities.

When picking out companies that will be buying back the largest number of shares in 2016, several things have to be considered. First and foremost, a company had to be willing to spend billions of dollars to buy its shares. Such companies also have to have a history of conducting stock buybacks, or they had to have a solid reason why they would be so aggressive in buying back stock this year alone.

As for which stocks are particularly well-positioned to be the beneficiaries of corporate buyback efforts, investors may want to put the following names on their radar. Attached you will find a selection of the 20 cheapest large cap stocks with a buyback announcement during the past 12 month.

These are the results...

20 Quality Buybacks At A Reasonable Price

On one hand, many would argue that the emphasis on share repurchases is merely a sign of the times – the US economy continues to grow (albeit slowly) while corporates enjoy ample balance sheet flexibility in an entirely unprecedented ultralow interest rate environment characterized by the Fed’s ongoing reluctance to raise rates as much of the world’s government debt has moved to negative yields… 

On the other hand, buyback activity near all-time highs could be considered a potential sign that the current Bull Market is approaching its peak. While there is a plausible argument supporting greater share repurchases – return of excess cash in the absence of viable alternative investments – firms have historically exhibited poor timing. 

Management tends to repurchase shares in bull markets when profits are high and balance sheets are flush with cash, while cutting back during recessions (precisely the time they should be buying over the long term).

Here are 20 high quality buyback kings at a reasonable price...

7 Good Running Companies That May Pay A Dividend For The First Time

Dividends are great but not all companies pay a dividend. Why? Well, there are many reasons, some might put all free cash-flow into the business in order to boost growth or they are buying back own shares and increases your stake in the company.

Those activities make only sense whey they have a stable running and continuous growing business like McDonalds or Coca Cola.

The second reason why a corporate pays no dividend is because they do not earn money and make losses. That's a really bad issue and I can tell you that it doesn't make sense to put money into a loss-generating machine.

Back to the topic of this article, today I like to introduce 7 stocks with a forward-orientated business that did not pay dividends buy may do it in the near future. It's always great to see what kind of stocks may appear on your dividend radar before others might see it.

Don't look to critical at the P/E valuation. The Enterprise Value gives a more fair view of the stocks. Most of them sit on tons of cash. I've written also a good article about stocks with the biggest cash accounts abroad. GE was on the first place there.

If you like more ideas about Dividend Champions with zero debt, you should check out this article: Dividend Champions With Zero Debt And Promising Payout Growth.

These are the results....

10 Most Popular Dividend Stocks Bought By Investment Gurus

Recently I published an article about Warren Buffett's latest dividend stock buys and sells of the recent quarter.

I'm ever surprised about his new investment. He bought Deere, a great company with high market share in the farmer’s equipment segment, while I was selling it due to high debt loads and operational headwinds.

You also may like my article about 10 stocks with the highest Share Buyback Program on the market.

Today I like to show you what the other super investors like George Soros, David Tepper, Bill Ackman, Bruce Berkowitz or others bought during the latest quarter. Each of the attached stocks were bought at least four times by one of the 60+ superinvestors.

It's a clear signal. They put money into the oil services industry. Drilling and exploration companies- Those are suffering mostly from the low oil price. Is it an anti-cyclic bet? What do you think; please share your thoughts by leaving a small comment.

These are my main favorites from the list....

20 Best Stocks To Buy Or Sell On Black Friday

The best stocks to trade on Black Friday; originally published at “long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Today is Black Friday. Yes, also for the financial markets is this calendar date a very meaningful event. It is the first day of the pre Christmas shopping season which indicates the strength of the full period. People searching for the best offers, the most attractive deals and spend as much money as their credit card allows. Some companies will benefit from Black Friday and the pre Christmas shopping season. Investors should be careful by buying Black Friday stocks.

I made a screen of well-known stocks which have an exposure to the current event. They are well diversified and should not have a higher downside risk if the sales numbers are weaker than expected. If you like the theme shopping and consumer goods and you like to buy stocks from several industries covering these ideas then you should take a look at the list of the 20 Black Friday stocks below.

The Black Friday shopping stock list consists of twenty stocks with consumer focus (apparel, jewelry, retail electronics and food). Most of them pay dividends and the average stocks is expected to grow in earnings by a double-digit amount. Below the results is one high-yield and sixteen have a current buy or better rating by brokerage firms.

100 Most Sold Stocks By Famous Investment Gurus Between May - October 2012

Stocks With Recent Short Activities By Investment Professionals Researched By Dividend Yield – Stock, Capital, Investment. Investment gurus are asset or fund managers with big amounts of cash under management. They became popular by big returns and spectacular investment strategies. I talk about investors like George Soros and Warren Buffett. They all have one thing in common: The average return beats the market and if they invest, the market follows.

I made a screen of the biggest stock sells from 49 super investors over the recent six month and ranked them in my 100 best guru sells list. They all sold 499 stocks within the past half- year. The top stocks are Wal-Mart (WMT) and Microsoft (MSFT). Both companies were sold by twelve investment gurus.

Dividend Idea Of The Week: Western Union (NYSE:WU) - A Major Player In Global Payment Services With Over 4% Yield And Potential To Double

Weekly Dividend Stock Ideas Researched by The Dividend Yield Weekly. Our weekly Dividend Idea is the global payment services stock Western Union (NYSE:WU). 

The money transfer company was sold-off by many investors after the disappointing the third-quarter results of the company. The company announced a 1% increase in sales and raised dividends by 25 percent and increased share buybacks to $750 million, but lowered the guidance in accordance to lower second-half revenues and a higher competition. The stock dropped around thirty percent and the current dividend yield after the dividend hike is over 4% at a P/E ratio of less than 7. Morningstar analysts estimated the fair value of the company at $25.0 which represents a potential to double.

Bill Nygren, Henry Berghoef - Oakmark Select Q4/2011 Fund Portfolio

Bill Nygren, Henry Berghoef - Oakmark Select Q4/2011 Fund Investing Strategies By Dividend Yield – Stock Capital, Investment. Here is a current portfolio update of Bill Nygren and Henry Berghoef’s - Oakmark Select - portfolio movements as of Q4/2011 (December 31, 2011). In total, they have 20 stocks with a total portfolio worth of USD 2,373,087,000.

David A. Katz - Matrix Advisors Value Fund Portfolio Q4/2011

David A. Katz Fund Investing Strategies By Dividend Yield – Stock Capital, Investment. Here is a current portfolio update of David A. Katz’s - Matrix Advisors Value - portfolio movements as of Q4/2011 (December 31, 2011). In total, he has 35 stocks with a total portfolio worth of USD 75,881,000.

The Best Performing NASDAQ 100 Stocks Since Tech Bubble Burst In 2001

Nasdaq 100 Stock Performance Since February 2001 By Bespoke. The Nasdaq 100 traded this morning to levels it has not seen since February 6th, 2001. While the index itself is flat since then, just 36 stocks in the index today were also in the index back then. Below we highlight the performance since 2/6/01 of these 36 stocks:

Robert Hagstrom - Legg Mason Growth Trust Q4-2011 Fund Portfolio

Robert Hagstrom - Legg Mason Growth Trust Q4-2011 Fund Investing Strategies By Dividend Yield – Stock Capital, Investment. Here is a current portfolio update of Robert Hagstrom’s - Legg Mason Growth Trust - portfolio movements as of Q4/2011 (December 31, 2011). In total, he has 46 stocks with a total portfolio worth of USD 167,104,000.

Strategy:

The Fund manager analyzes the fundamental quantitative and qualitative aspects of a company — long-term growth characteristics, sustainable competitive advantages, strong management - compared to its stock price. The investment strategy is based on the principle that the return from owning a stock is ultimately determined by the fundamentals of the underlying business and focus should therefore be on the company's long-term economic progress, disregarding short-term nuances.

Robert Hagstrom’s fund positions as of Q4/2011 with actual share movements:

Sym - Stock	Portfolio Weight	Recent activity	Reported Price*
DEO - Diageo plc	3.92	0	$87.43
FFIV - F5 Networks	3.49	Reduce 21.43%	$106.13
CELG - Celgene Corp.	3.44	Reduce 32.00%	$67.60
LOW - Lowe's Cos.	3.39	Reduce 25.67%	$25.38
ABT - Abbott Labs	3.3	Reduce 14.78%	$56.23
CNX - CONSOL Energy Inc.	3.29	0	$36.70
AAPL - Apple Inc.	3.27	Reduce 28.95%	$405.04
NBR - Nabors Industries Ltd.	3.27	0	$17.34
JNJ - Johnson & Johnson	3.24	Reduce 2.94%	$65.58
ADBE - Adobe Systems	3.21	Reduce 36.67%	$28.27
MDT - Medtronic Inc.	3.2	0	$38.25
BLK - BlackRock Inc.	3.2	Reduce 34.07%	$178.23
EBAY - eBay Inc.	2.99	Reduce 17.50%	$30.33
EMC - EMC Corp.	2.84	Reduce 26.67%	$21.54
QCOM - QUALCOMM Inc.	2.62	Reduce 36.00%	$54.70
MON - Monsanto Co.	2.6	Reduce 4.62%	$70.06
NKE - NIKE Inc.	2.48	Reduce 4.44%	$96.37
PM - Philip Morris Intl.	2.47	Add 5.00%	$78.48
RHHVF - Roche Holdings AG	2.42	Add 5.56%	$42.55
RAX - Rackspace Hosting Inc.	2.32	Add 5.88%	$43.01
AMZN - Amazon Corp.	2.28	0	$173.09
PG - Procter & Gamble	2.2	Reduce 26.67%	$66.71
PWR - Quanta Services	2.19	Reduce 22.73%	$21.54
PEP - PepsiCo Inc.	2.18	Reduce 31.25%	$66.35
LUV - Southwest Airlines	2.18	0	$8.56
MSFT - Microsoft Corp.	2.17	Reduce 45.10%	$25.96
CSCO - Cisco Systems	2.16	Reduce 39.39%	$18.08
MYGN - Myriad Genetics Inc.	2.13	0	$20.94
SLB - Schlumberger Ltd.	2.04	0	$68.32
CTSH - Cognizant Technology Solutions	2.02	Add 110.00%	$64.30
ADSK - Autodesk Inc.	1.95	0	$30.33
MMM - 3M Co.	1.71	0	$81.74
SCHW - Charles Schwab	1.68	Reduce 28.57%	$11.26
RHT - Red Hat Inc.	1.45	0	$41.30
GRPN - Groupon Inc.	1.23	Buy	$20.63
LCCTF - LOccitane Int.	1.21	Add 26.25%	$2.01
MRVL - Marvell Technology Group Ltd.	1.16	0	$13.85
ALV - Autoliv Inc.	1.12	Buy	$53.49
JIVE - Jive Software Inc.	1.1	Buy	$16.00
ATHN - athenahealth Inc.	1.03	Buy	$49.11
APKT - Acme Packet Inc	0.93	Buy	$30.92
SINA - Sina Corp.	0.93	Add 53.85%	$52.00
PRDSF - PRADA SPA	0.6	Buy	$4.53
CTRP - Ctrip.com International Ltd.	0.49	Buy	$23.40
YNGDF - YINGDE GASES GROUP	0.46	Buy	$1.02
YOKO - Youku.com Inc.	0.42	0	$15.67

Related Stock Ticker:

DEO, FFIV, CELG, LOW, ABT, CNX, AAPL, NBR, JNJ, ADBE, MDT, BLK, EBAY, EMC, QCOM, MON, NKE, PM, RHHVF, RAX, AMZN, OG, PWR, PEP, LUV, MSFT, CSCO, MYGN, SLB, CTSH, ADSK, MMM, SCHW, RHT, GRPN, LCCTF, MRVL, ALV, JIVE, ATHN, APKT, SINA, PRDSF, CTRP, YNGFD, YOKO