New alliance could boost volumes

Article Excerpt

EBAY INC. $34 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $34.0 billion; Price to-sales ratio: 3.3; No dividend paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) operates e-commerce websites where sellers pay fees to auction items or offer them at fixed prices. The company also operates several other websites, including StubHub (ticket sales). These services are in addition to its local websites (among them Kijiji in Canada); they sell classified ads in over 1,500 cities. The company has formed an alliance with Square Inc. (New York symbol SQ) to offer eBay merchants access to loans ranging up to $100,000. Making it easier for those sellers to access capital should help them expand their sales volumes on eBay’s platforms. Moreover, Square will make those loans, and assume all credit risks. The stock trades at a reasonable 14.8 times eBay’s likely 2018 earnings of $2.29 a share. eBay is a buy. buy…