eBay earns $14.1 billion on $175B of commerce flow in 2012

eBay reported its Q4 financials for 2012 today. The company earned $751 million on $4 billion worth of sales in the last three months. Full-year revenues were $14.1 billion, with a net income of $2.6 billion.

That’s up 18 percent year-over-year for the fourth quarter, and it’s up 21 percent for the full 2012 earnings.

“We had a great finish to an excellent year, with fourth quarter results exceeding our expectations,” eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said in a statement. “eBay Marketplaces in particular had a terrific fourth quarter, with growth in the U.S. accelerating three points, outpacing ecommerce.”

Above: eBay stock today

Image Credit: Google Finance

Key payments division PayPal, which has been a critical revenue driver for eBay in previous quarters, continues to do well, with payment volume up 24 percent … which, given PayPal’s fairly linear revenue structure, means that earnings were also up 24 percent.

PayPal clients sent nearly $24 billion to each other in 2012 — 250 percent more than in 2011 — and PayPal reported adding two million accounts a month in the fourth quarter, which the company says is PayPal’s fastest growth ever.

PayPal’s growth is important for eBay, as mobile payments is an increasingly growing market. PayPal put mobile commerce first explicitly in July of 2012, when mobile boss Hill Ferguson was elevated to VP of global product and saw a huge jump in mobile payments this past Thanksgiving. The company also teamed up with NCR to attack Square just a few days ago.

eBay as a whole generated $2.6 billion of cash flow in excess of expenses in the past year and is now sitting on a nice little nest egg of $11.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and non-equity investments. Not exactly Apple-sized, but certainly nothing to sniff at.

And for 2013?

eBay expects to earn $16-16.5 billion and make between $2.23 and $2.29 per share. The company’s stock is up $0.40 on the day.

photo credit: Ryan Fanshaw Photography via photopin cc