Asset sale set to fuel share buybacks

Article Excerpt

EBAY INC. $54 is also buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 796.1 million; Market cap: $43.0 billion; Price to-sales ratio: 3.1; Dividend yield: 1.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) recently agreed to sell its classified ad business, which supplies 10% of its revenue, to Norway’s Adevinta ASA (Over-the-counter Pink Sheets symbol ADEVF). eBay expects to complete the sale in the first quarter of 2021. It will then receive $2.5 billion in cash and 540 million shares of Adevinta. That will give it a 44% equity stake (33.3% voting stake) in the combined firm. The company could use the cash to buy back more shares or increase its dividend; the annual rate of $0.64 a share yields 1.2%. eBay is a buy. buy…