Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Why eBay Is Poised to Keep Poppin'

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, online marketplace gorilla eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at eBay and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

eBay facts

Headquarters (founded)

San Jose, Calif. (1995)

Market Cap

$68.7 billion

Industry

Internet software and services

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$14.5 billion

Management

CEO John Donahoe (since 2008)

CFO Robert Swan (since 2006)

Trailing-12-Month Return on Equity

13.6%

Cash/Debt

$9.4 billion / $4.5 billion

Competitors

Amazon.com

Google

Overstock

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 87% of the 4,453 members who have rated eBay believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last week, one of those bulls, fellow Fool Thomas Engle (TMF1000), touched on a couple of eBay's potent sources of growth:

[eBay] has PayPal which is another excellent addition to their business. And PayPal is going to grow much larger. This year millions of offline merchant locations will be accepting PayPal. I expect in the next two years we will see PayPal revenue soar -- that alone is reason to own [eBay]. ...

PayPal wasn't [their] only strategic acquisition -- GSI Commerce hosts websites for 180 retailers which include some big names. Many of those retailers were among the first to accept PayPal in their brick and mortar stores. GSI Commerce did much more for [eBay] than just make PayPal more popular -- they led about 18 merchants to sell their products on [eBay] not relying only on their website for web sales. And GSI continues to add more brick and mortar stores as clients  

If you want market-thumping returns, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Of course, despite a strong four-star rating, eBay may not be your top choice.

In fact, it's incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks?" in The Motley Fool's latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged by the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

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