Sarah Wasserman (swasserman@sir-inc.com) On Wednesday, eBay Inc. (EBAY) reported third-quarter earnings of 40 cents per share -- surpassing Wall Street's expectations by 3 cents. The online auctioneer attributed its strong quarterly numbers in part to its partnership with PayPal. Meanwhile, EBAY's outlook for the fourth quarter also came in stronger than expected. As a result, the shares have jumped some 8.7% higher so far today, hitting a fresh annual peak of $28.44.
Analysts seemed to like EBAY's results, with the stock receiving a slew of price-target boosts this morning. Specifically, Jefferies raised EBAY's price target to $34 from $32, Stifel increased its price target on the shares to $32 from $30, and S&P Equity upped its price target to $30 from $27 -- just to name a few.
EBAY has also caught option players' attention today, with roughly 40,000 puts changing hands so far -- 11 times the equity's expected daily put volume.
The December 25 put has been the most popular today, with 10,156 contracts crossing the tape -- nearly all of which traded at the bid price, indicating they were likely sold. With today's volume far exceeding open interest at this strike, it appears that fresh short put positions were added here. By selling to open the December 25 put, traders are expecting EBAY to remain above the $25 level over the next two months.
At last check, EBAY was trading around $27.95.
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