EBAY

Braintree Is an Intriguing Acquisition for eBay

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Thursday morning, Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding eBay (click ticker for report: ) announced the acquisition of Chicago-based payment platform Braintree for $800 million in cash. Braintree is best known for accepting mobile transactions, and it is currently on pace to process $12 billion in net payment value for 2013. What is Braintree? Braintree is a fairly straightforward payment processing platform. While some processors demand variable fees and certain payment thresholds, Braintree is a simple 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Importantly, the transactions process in just two days, allowing small or capital hungry firms to access cash at a quick pace. Of the forecast for net payment volume of $12 billion in 2013, the firm expects $4 billion to be … Read more

Is the New PayPal App a Game-Changer for eBay?

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Thursday afternoon, eBay’s PayPal (click ticker for report: ) released its updated version of its iOS and Android mobile application. This release marks the latest attempt for a digital wallet to usurp the importance of the credit/debit card and “simplify” payments. By no means is this the first attempt for a company to push a digital wallet. Google Wallet (click ticker for report: ) has failed to gain much traction, not because it is exclusive to Android, but mostly because it isn’t a very intuitive program and awareness isn’t high. Apple’s Passbook (click ticker for report: ) has sneaked into the marketplace to become the fourth most popular mobile commerce app. Passbook differs from Google Wallet in the sense that … Read more

eBay’s “Weak” Guidance Doesn’t Change the Phenomenal Story

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E-commerce giant and Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio holding eBay (click ticker for report: ) announced solid second quarter results after the closing bell Wednesday. Revenue jumped 14% year-over-year to $3.9 billion, roughly in-line with consensus expectations. Earnings were also in-line with consensus estimates, growing 13% year-over-year to $0.63 per share on a non-GAAP basis. Free cash flow for the quarter was wonderful at $658 million, approximately 17% of revenue. Enabled commerce volume, a metric specific to eBay, registered $51 billion, a 21% increase over the same period a year ago. Image Source: EBAY Q2 FY2013 Earnings Presentation PayPal continued to be a stellar performer for eBay, with payments revenue surging 21% year-over-year to $1.475 billion, driven largely by international growth, … Read more

Why Valuentum’s Email Transaction Alerts Are Worth Paying Attention To

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Valuentum subscribers have noticed that we’ve been quite busy as of late, adding protection to our portfolio in the form of a broader-market put option and taking some large profits in Astronics (ATRO) and eBay (EBAY). We’ve highlighted our best-in-class hit rate–meaning that a large percentage of the firms we added to the portfolio are outperforming the broad market benchmark. But there are a couple ways of looking at our performance–the first is relative outperformance versus the market since inception, which is at 28 percentage points. Investors duplicating our portfolio are enjoying this outperformance. Another way of looking at our track record, however, is to evaluate the performance of additions to the portfolio on the long side (purchases) since inception–i.e. … Read more

Amazon’s Story Doesn’t Change

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Online mega-retailer Amazon (click ticker for report: ) reported strong first quarter results. Revenue was slightly worse than consensus estimates anticipated, growing 22% year-over-year to $16 billion. Conversely, earnings per share exceeded consensus expectations, but still fell 35% year-over-year to $0.18. Amazon reports a metric of trailing twelve months (TTM) free cash flow, which declined 85% sequentially to $177 million as the firm invests heavily in fulfillment centers and distribution. Amazon’s earnings guidance was relatively weak, with the firm anticipating it will post operating income of negative $340 million to positive $10 million in the second quarter—meaning the company isn’t likely to come anywhere near the consensus expectation of $0.22 per share. Revenue is anticipated to fall between $14.9 billion … Read more

The E-Commerce War Between eBay and Amazon Heats Up

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In order to help drive more sellers on to its platform, Best Ideas Newsletter holding eBay (click ticker for report: ) announced new, less complicated fee structures. The firm already charged lower fees than Amazon (click ticker for report: ), but the new structure gives greater transparency to sellers. The move is very positive, in our view, as we think it can help drive a stronger network of fixed price sellers to eBay. After becoming associated with auctions since its inception, eBay is in the process of becoming a destination for buyers of everything, much like Amazon has done successfully over the past several years. While Amazon may look slightly more attractive in the near-term because more buyers are on … Read more

Who’s Amazon’s Next Victim?

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An interesting white paper was released recently, analyzing how Amazon (click ticker for report: ) is altering the retail landscape. The paper itself had some interesting insights, but our favorite takeaway of Placed’s work was the top ten companies at risk. 1.    Bed Bath and Beyond (click ticker for report: ) 2.    PetSmart (click ticker for report: ) 3.    Toys ‘R Us 4.    Best Buy (click ticker for report: ) 5.    Sears (click ticker for report: ) 6.    Barnes & Noble (BKS) 7.    Kohl’s (click ticker for report: ) 8.    Target (click ticker for report: ) 9.    Costco (click ticker for report: ) 10. JC Penney (click ticker for report: ) For the most part, we agree with the list, … Read more

Best Ideas Portfolio Holding eBay Flashed a VBI of 10 and Has Never Looked Back

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Valuentum members have been blessed by the good fortunes of eBay (click ticker for report: ). The firm has been one of the best performers in the entire market after it registered the very top rating of 10 on the Valuentum Buying Index (VBI) in September 2011. Very few firms ever score a 10 on the VBI, so when a company does, members take close note. Google (click ticker for report: ) was the most recent firm to do so, and it has since rocketed to new all-time highs. In most cases, we tend to add firms to our Best Ideas portfolio when they register a 9 or 10 and remove them when they register a 1 or 2 on … Read more