Dipping a Toe Into eBay

"eBay had more early adaptors than most," says Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Capital Management, which owns a small stake in eBay among its $1 billion in assets. "Now, they have to get the incremental growth, and that's a lot tougher."

Some financial and technology analysts have argued that the payment system of Google's (GOOG Quote) free listing service, Google Base, could pose a competitive threat to PayPal.

Though both eBay and Google have downplayed talk of a rivalry between PayPal and Base, most Wall Street analysts continue to speak of it.

"We believe that Google Base is less of a threat to eBay than many of our peers," Devitt writes. "While there are 24 million products listed in Google Base, only 1,569 are items comparable to eBay."

Even so, investors aren't completely ruling out that a rivalry may develop.

"Certainly, the potential for Google to steal share is still there," Ghriskey says, adding that "it's not an immediate threat."