eBay, one of the beneficiaries of the quarantine, should face increased competition as early as the second quarter of 2021, which makes its prospects quite difficult to assess. However, despite the easing of restrictive measures, the company expects revenue growth of 40% in the first quarter, to $2.94-2.99 billion.
The site has long been a popular marketplace for selling products, but this does not prevent it from finding new sources of growth. Apparently, during the pandemic, many people did a general cleaning of their homes and found forgotten collectible cards, which were displayed in large numbers on eBay. In total, 4 million cards were sold in 2020, which is 142% more than last year.
eBay works with services to verify the authenticity of various collectible and valuable items: from watches and sneakers, to cards. Investors and collectors appreciated the convenience of the platform, which has a positive effect not only on the trading volume, but also on the profit from advertising. The fact is that the owners of valuable items actively purchase the promotion of their lots on the platform in order to get a higher profit. eBay's revenue from product promotions increased 60% to $215 million in the fourth quarter.
An important point is the purchase of its own shares from the market: in 2020, eBay spent $5.1 billion on these operations, buying back about 10% of the shares in circulation. At the moment, management has managed to approve purchases for another $6 billion. The dividend yield of the shares is 2.6%.