2 Numbers eBay Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings

If PayPal keeps winning, so, too, will eBay stock investors.

What can we expect from the payments platform when the auctioneer reports earnings on April 17? Outsized growth seems likely. Despite growing competition from Square, Google , and evenGroupon , PayPal handled 700 million payments transactions and served 123 million active accounts in the fourth quarter. Investors should be looking for meaningful growth in both figures in the Q1 report.

For its part, Wall Street is expecting first-quarter revenue to grow 14.9% to $3.76 billion, resulting in $0.62 of profit per share. The company has marginally beaten earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, according to data supplied by Yahoo! Finance. eBay stock is up more than 61% over that period.

Would a bigger beat help eBay stock rally further? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova weighs in on this question in the video below. Please watch and then leave a comment to let us know what you whether you would buy, sell, or short eBay stock at current prices.

It's incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out "Who Will Win the War Between the 5 Biggest Tech Stocks" in The Motley Fool's latest free report, which details the knock-down, drag-out battle being waged among the five kings of tech. Click here to keep reading.

The article 2 Numbers eBay Stock Investors Should Know Ahead of Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Google at the time of publication. Check out Tim's Web home and portfolio holdings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of eBay and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.