eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has avoided massive bull market performance, making gains of only about 7.5% in 2013. The S&P 500 had gains of 29.6% for the same time period. 24/7 Wall St. has been evaluating the bullish and bearish case in 2014 for many key companies (including all DJIA stocks), and eBay deserves such a review.
Source: courtesy of ebay
While eBay’s stock has been lackluster, its tale seems much more of an easy sell to new prospective investors than many other runaway Internet valuations. Its case easily seems much more bullish for 2014 than other companies.
The stock closed out 2013 at $54.87, and shares have slid to almost $52 again, in a 52-week range of $48.06 to $58.04. The company trades at about 16.5 times 2014 expected earnings, and eBay generally meets or slightly exceeds its earnings expectations. What is interesting is that its sales and earnings are expected to keep growing in the double digits for the foreseeable future.
What seems to be taking place is that eBay is simply becoming harder for analysts and investors alike to get excited about. Maybe it became a monopoly in online auctions for consumers, but eBay’s real growth is coming from commerce and analytic services for big businesses. It also has a very recognized brand in PayPal to boot.
Despite the notion that eBay has slowly been making payment systems acquisitions, it still has close to $14 billion in cash and liquidity. Perhaps the biggest sin is that it still refuses to pay a dividend. The $67 billion market cap is not unjust, and eBay almost feels a bit like a value stock except in its capital distribution (or lack thereof).
eBay was recently noted as being on the list of top Merrill Lynch Internet picks for 2014. With a consensus target price of about $62.30, the Merrill Lynch target is up at $64 for eBay. If that target is reached, then there are better than 20% gains to be had here.
Coming up with a fair value of $60 in 2014 is just not that hard to do when it comes to eBay. In fact, that is a very conservative estimate. If eBay gets serious about rewarding its shareholders, then it could have far more upside than what the street already hopes for.
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