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 Large Caps With High Aggressive Earnings Growth For The Mid-Term

Dividend investors focus on dividend payments but you need also a focus on growth. 

Today I like to show you some of the highest growth large caps on the market. Intel bought the number one stock recently. Maybe you will find some attractive targets on the attached list.

But beware of the high valuation from most of the stocks. Consider only stocks with a good balance between high growth and modest valuation.

Here are the results from my high growth large cap screen...

10 Stocks With The Highest Amount Of Cash In Bank Accounts

A lot of analysts have been suggesting that investors might want to consider moving to cash, but what if you’re the type of investor who likes to stay long no matter what, knowing that the market always eventually comes back? 

If that’s the case, instead of moving to cash yourself, you can invest in stocks that have large cash positions. Companies that have large cash positions have several advantages. 

That cash can be used for: 

1. Research and development, which then has the potential to lead to innovation and organic growth. 

2. Acquisitions, which has the potential to lead to inorganic growth. 

3. Increasing shareholder returns via share buybacks and dividends. 

This in turn has the potential to buoy stocks when the broader market is volatile, especially if it’s a new buyback announcement or a dividend increase. 

4. Pay off debt. 

With all that in mind, here are the companies in the S&P 500 Index that hold the most cash...

These 20 Stocks Serve The Most Cash Reserves

Stocks with a high level of cash are better positioned in my view. They have enough room to think about growth opportunities and don't need to manage their debt.

Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Cisco and Oracle had amassed $504bn of cash by the end of 2015, nearly a third of the total $1.7tn held on the balance sheets of US non-financial companies, according to a new report from rating agency Moody’s. The top 50 holders accounted for $1.1tn of that amount.

These are the 20 most cash-rich companies on the us stock market...

What Hedgefund Managers Buy And Sell: Facebook In - Apple Out

Recently, the quarterly SEC disclosures hit that give us a peek into the activities of the world’s best billionaire hedge fund managers. 

Now, 13-F filings provide a ton of information, but you have to know exactly what to look for to make these filings useful. 

Waren Buffett also published his latest buys and sells. Buffett is long on Apple. Check out his latest dividend stock buys here.

With that being said here is what caught my eye from the holdings of the world’s best billionaire hedge fund managers:

10 Stocks With The Highest Amount Of Cash And Long-Term Investments

Attached you will find a current snapshot of the best in cash swimming stocks on the market. 6 of 10 come from the technology sector. Tech is still a massive cash generating sector in which long-term engaged investors should keep an eye on.

Apple is still the king with over USD 215 billion in cash and short term investments. Compared to the recent year, the amount grew by 21.2 percent which is also the fastest growth momentum on the list.

Check the list here...

The Best Portfolio Of Cloud Storage Stocks And Which The Best Dividends Pay

The forecasts for burgeoning industries including the cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) vary, but the common theme is undeniable: We are in the early stages of what are quickly becoming game-changing markets. The two cutting-edge technologies share a common thread: IoT amasses almost unfathomable amounts of data, while the cloud is the primary means of storing it.

If you are interested in technology stocks with focus on modern themes like cloud computing or social media, you should look at the following selection of stocks from the cloud storage industry.

Over the past decade, stocks from the portfolio generated a total return of 18.83% yearly. In 2014 alone, the return of the dividend paying stocks was 27.2%. Today it would deliver an inital yield of 2.77%. In 2005, the inital yield was only at 0.56%.

Even as cloud technologies and services remain in their early stages, it has become abundantly clear that revenue -- at least significant revenue -- is not going to come from hosting. Many of the big-time cloud providers have essentially made cloud data hosting a commodity, which is ideal for Microsoft and other companies from the field.

Here are the top yielding stocks...

16 Most Favored Stocks By Institutional Investors And Hedge Fund Managers

Institutional investors must know it better. That's a rule I often hear from friends but why should this be true? Maybe they are better informed because the shake hands with CEO's or politicians.

The second issue is that hedge fund managers have enough firepower to move the stock price in any direction.

However, don't think about why they are trading and let us look at the most favored stocks from big investor gurus.

Attached is the full list of the 16 most loved stocks. Do you like some of them?

These are the highest yielding results in detail...

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....