Stifel Upgrades eBay to Buy

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt has upgraded EBAY from Hold to Buy and maintains his $35 price target on the stock. Devitt cites EBAY's efforts to better its buyer experience and the improved performance of certain segments. Devitt says "as a maturing business, if eBay can increase activity with customers that already use the product, it can win in a big way."

Comments

[Jimmy Goodwin:]

Nice time to buy too, it has already dipped in past month.

2008 Jun 16 12:10 PM

[mmmmmmm:]

pffffffft ! Scott Devitt has no idea what he's talking about when he says ebay is improving search or improving anything.

"EBay has been improving relationships between buyers and sellers through several initiatives, including disallowing sellers from leaving feedback for buyers, improving its search matching technology and more incentives for fixed-price sales."

Disallowing sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers has made ebay a scammers haven, even more fruitful a haven than before. Without fear of consequences, more and more buyers are bidding and not paying, and this is just one issue out of many that have sprung up from Donohoe's rape of ebay. Sellers are jumping ship in droves. Fear and distrust is the main feeling between Buyers and Sellers. STR is at an all time low.

Get a clue - Read the ebay community threads and discussions, particularly Seller Central, Paypal, Feedback.

2008 Jun 16 12:20 PM

[xebayaddict:]

Wow! Only a fool ready to part ways with his money would invest in eBay right now. Evidently the days of innovation are over although John Donahue would have analysts and investors think otherwise. Trying to copycat existing fixed-price venues is the opposite of innovation. eBay in its present form is a heavy-handed, sluggish marketplace that seems to have turned its back on the things-the innovation-that made it so unique. Best Match is cited as one of the improvements that better the buyer experience; its so sad that eBay executives and clueless stock analysts don't see it as the failure it actually is. And isn't it a bit premature to upgrade to buy? Devitt states "if eBay can increase activity with customers that already use the product, it can win in a big way." Hello?? It hasn't happened yet; buyers aren't returning, buyers are purchasing less and new buyer activity isn't being generated in any real volume. Somebody's trying to pull a fast one!

2008 Jun 16 12:54 PM

[ebaywonderland:]

I find it amusing, in a perverse sort of way, to read any analysts comments about ebay having improved it's standing with Best Match as well as a better buyer and seller experience.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be further from the reality of what is now happening on ebay with the many changes they have implemented since late January of this year.

All it takes is reading the message boards with real member comments to see what an absolute fiasco it has become. Perhaps the analysts ought to talk to customers of ebay and paypal first, rather than take their lead from data that is obviously misleading, such as the listing counts.

The sell through rate is tanking faster than the Titanic went down, buyers are no longer able to search categories with ease due to the default setting of Best Match who's algorithim has yet to make a bit of sense to either seller or buyer.

The feedback changes are showing their true colors in how buyers are now taking advantage of holding all the cards in the deck and demanding partial refunds, free shipping, returns because they didn't read the description, giving sellers negatives and neutrals at will for the most minor and often untrue reasons. And ebay taking advantage of the buyer's ratings of sellers to diminish the seller's ability to be found at all in searches.

And who, praytell, considers a neutral rating the same as a negative? Ebay does, and the seller's rating drops the same with a neutral as a negative. Of course it's to ebay's advantage to do so because the more the seller sinks, the less ebay has to pay to the powersellers who have to meet the bar ebay sets to receive their carrot on a stick 5% or 15% discount over the prior 30 day rankings they receive from buyers.

And let's add to the mix of failures, the fact that if a seller falls into what ebay determines to be lower than acceptable buyer satisfaction ratings, they are forced into paypal acceptance and paypal holds on payments received for up to 21 days.

And this analyst believes ebay has improved and their stock will increase as a result?

Does this analyst get paid for these opinions? That's a waste of money.

2008 Jun 16 01:24 PM

[Dinah Balk:]

Scott Devitt must have failed Spin 101 because even a low grade moron knows eBay is going kaput due to Donahoe's disruptive innovations.

Better buyer experience? That occurs when eBay buyers go to Amazon because they can't find IT on eBay if their lives depended on it, lol.

Better relationships between buyers & sellers? Many sellers have been threatened with retalitory feedback IF sellers don't give into buyer demands such as discounting merchandise AFTER the sale or reducing shipping cost.

Still think eBay is a good buy? Perhaps one day it will be if Bill Gates bought it, fired eBay's entire staff, and hit the delete button on all disruptive innovations beginning with Best Match.

2008 Jun 18 01:08 AM

[Corala:]

Scott Devitt must of lost his mind! The product ebay offers is its Sellers! The Sellers are leaving in huge numbers ,there by deminishing the buyers choices. Thats if the buyer can find anything with ebays new Best Match(Worst Sort on the net) .
JD has scrambled just about everything on ebay in an attempt to make it into the new Amazon. What JD fails to understand is that Ebay was built on the Auction business
and if he turns it into just another online Market place like Amazon it will lose its uniqueness. The fact that anyone could find anything on ebay will be lost!
JD has shackled the sellers to the point where they are just leaving for other Auction houses. Look at the numbers of the others. They have grown by leaps and bounds since all the new changes have taken effect.
And God forbid he has more changes coming this year.
There is a protest planned for the Ebay live and the Stock Holders meeting this month.
Mr DEvitt needs to take those rose colored glasses off?

2008 Jun 18 01:47 PM