But while Apple surges, eBay stuttered forward yesterday.
Just as Apple faces the danger of a saturated market for iPods, there are fears that the online auction market has gone as far as it’s going.
The latest profits at eBay were affected by the change in US regulation meaning share options have to be included as costs now. As a result it’s not easy to make a comparison with the last quarter or year before. Net income was $248.3milloin, compared with $256.3mn a year earlier. That works out as 17 cents a share, versus 19 cents a share 12 months ago, but after excluding the effect of share options, the latest quarter results were the equivalent of 20 cents a share - a slight improvement then on a year earlier, but only just.
More to the point eBay is predicting sales and profits for 2006 at below market expectations.
So is this the end of eBay as a high growth stock?
We very much doubt it. Online auctioning is still the domain of a minority. For many, the process is still a mystery, hence the number of books out there on the subject.
Earlier this week, we told how stock exchanges are increasingly looking like glorified eBays. Maybe in time eBay could become a vehicle for trading shares too - especially in unquoted companies.
Then there’s Skype. Time will tell, but the purchase of the global leader in VoiP may yet prove to be a very shrewd move.
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