Stock Update: eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) – Deal talk during 2011 Super Bowl led to insider trading, SEC says

[Reuters] – A California gas station owner traded on inside information about an expected deal in 2011 involving an e-commerce service provider known as GSI Commerce Inc that an executive told him about while attending the Super Bowl, U.S. regulators said in a lawsuit. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed the lawsuit against Robert Munakash, who owns three gas stations in southern California, in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday. The complaint also targeted Carlos Rodriguez, the gas stations’ general manager, and Marc Winters, Munakash’s broker, for allegedly engaging in insider trading like Munakash ahead of the 2011 announcement that eBay Inc planned to buy GSI for $1.96 billion. Read more on this. eBay Inc. (EBAY) , with a current value of $26.50B, started the session at $22.86. A quick look at the market, the company’s stock traded between $21.51 and $22.88 with its 52-week range being $21.51 to $29.83. EBAY shares are currently priced at 12.56x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry ’s 6.91x earnings multiple for the same period. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 33 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.45 per share, which would be $0.03 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.03 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $1.87 which would be a $0.04 improvement than last year’s full-year earnings. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $2.08 Billion. If realized, that would be a 53.26% decrease over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Susquehanna Initiated EBAY at Positive (Jan 15, 2016). Previously, Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded EBAY from Buy to Hold. Given all the information above, we should disclose to readers that the average price target is $28.38, which is 24.15% above than it opened this morning. See more in (NASDAQ:EBAY) Similar Articles: Stock Update: eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) – eBay Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2015 Results Market Update: eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) – eBay Inc. Completes Sale of eBay Enterprise Market Update: eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) – eBay (EBAY) Stock Retreats on Analyst Downgrade