Thanks To PayPal, eBay Beats The Street And Posts 14 Percent Increase In Net Income

eBay just posted Q3 earnings today; reporting that revenue for the quarter increased a slight 1% to $2.2 billion, or up 10% excluding Skype, compared to the same period of 2009 (eBay sold Skype in Q3 last year). The company’s non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $530.6 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, representing a 14% increase excluding Skype, compared to the same period of 2009. eBay beat analyst expectations of $0.37 per share.

According to the release, PayPal delivered strong third quarter performance seeing a growth in revenue, total payment volume and active registered accounts. PayPal ended the quarter with 90 million active accounts worldwide adding more than a million new accounts each month during the quarter. And for the fourth consecutive quarter, Merchant Services net total payment volume grew 40% or more year over year. The core Marketplaces segment continued to grow slightly as well; sold items were up almost 13% year over year and accelerated in the US and UK.

In July, eBay has forecasted third-quarter profit of $0.35 to $0.37 per share on $2.13 billion to $2.18 billion in revenue. Analysts expected earnings to come in at $2.18 billion in revenue or $0.37 per share.

eBay’s president and CEO, John Donahoe stated in the release: “We delivered strong third quarter results, with great performance at PayPal and stable results at eBay…PayPal gained share globally and eBay continued to improve key metrics.”

While auction growth slows, PayPal has long been the crown jewel in eBay’s pocket, so it’s not surprising that once again the payments company helped buoy eBay’s earnings.

In the earnings call, Donohoe said that PayPal now represents 70% of payments on the eBay auction platform. He also mentioned PayPal’s strong growth in Asia, launching a partnership with Singapore bank BBS. And PayPal now sells pre-paid cards as well. Latin America is also a region where PayPal is expanding, says Donohoe. Mobile payments is clearly a strong area for PayPal, and $500 million in mobile payments is expected to flow through the payments system in 2010. Over 3 million eBay users enrolled in the new cash-back program, which is also PayPal affiliated.

We’ve embedded the slides below: