Ahead Of The Bell: EBay Gains After 1Q Earnings

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of eBay Inc. jumped before the open Thursday on the back of earnings from the day before that topped Wall Street expectations.

Shares rose 6.6 percent, or 97 cents, to $15.75 after closing at $14.78 Wednesday.

The online marketplace operator posted earnings of 357.1 million, or 28 cents per share — down 22 percent from a year ago. However, excluding one-time charges, earnings of 39 cents per share beat analysts' expectations, as polled by Thomson Reuters, by 6 cents.

Revenue fell 8 percent to $2.02 billion, just above analysts expectations of $1.94 billion.

Income from eBay's marketplaces unit — eBay itself as well as e-commerce sites StubHub and Shopping.com — drove the beat, said Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, even though its results had problems, such as hits from foreign-currency conversions and the weak economy.

He upgraded the company to "Hold" from "Sell" — reversing his downgrade from 10 days ago.

Free shipping, a better search experience for consumers and increased buyer protection are good signs, Aggarwal said, and may help eBay bridge the gap with competitor Amazon.com.