eBay's Early Cheer

eBay(EBAY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) is riding a wave of bullishness heading into the all-important holiday shopping season.

At Tuesday's close, the stock was up 24% in the last three months -- 9% of which was delivered in only the last month since the company announced earnings. Shares were up another 18 cents Wednesday to $33.83.

But the positive sentiment may just be kicking in. A barrage of analyst-issued research reports this week lauded eBay's current-quarter progress and gave a vote of confidence to management's efforts to get the business back on track.

Listings on its core auction site are growing at a healthy clip, and the amount of users eBay can coax into making purchases is also picking up as management predicted, said a Bear Stearns research report issued Monday. And Prudential Equity Group, impressed by eBay's worldwide growth, reiterated its overweight rating and $40 price target for the stock in a note also Monday.

And after a meeting with eBay CFO Bob Swan on Tuesday, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt emerged as the most vocal supporter of the stock. Following a long period of flirting with loads of unsuccessful ideas, Devitt wrote, the company had finally found its roots. He says the stock is poised for growth again after two years of getting beaten down.

After the meeting, "we came away with an increased conviction in the business, its management, and its common shares," wrote Devitt. "We believe eBay has appropriately gone back to its roots -- or just maybe, we are seeing the tail end of a late 2005, nonpublicized, Pez Dispenser Manifesto with eBay," he wrote, referencing the widely circulated memo earlier this week about how Yahoo!(YHOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) could turn its business around.