eBay Inc. reports its second-quarter results after the market close

When eBay Inc. reports its second-quarter results after the market close on Wednesday, investors will learn how its namesake e-commerce site and PayPal online payment service fared during the April-June period. The company is expected to report growth compared with the year-ago quarter.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Investors will be looking for growth in eBay's marketplace business, which is its largest unit and includes eBay.com and many other e-commerce sites. They will also be looking for growth at PayPal, which is its second-largest segment.

San Jose-based eBay has been working to stimulate more growth on eBay, trying to improve the buying and selling process by cutting upfront listing fees it charges sellers, revamping its home page and rolling out mobile applications.

PayPal has long grown rapidly, benefiting from the rise of consumers and merchants using it to send money on and off eBay. In late June, the company announced it had more than 100 million active accounts.

EBay is also likely to talk about the health of its quickly growing mobile business, which includes an array of smartphone and tablet apps for eBay and PayPal. In April, eBay reiterated an earlier prediction for $4 billion worth of goods sold through eBay.com mobile apps this year, and PayPal raised its mobile payment estimate in June by predicting it will process $3 billion in payments from mobile devices this year.

WHY IT MATTERS: Since eBay is one of the largest e-commerce companies, its results can serve as a barometer for the health of the e-commerce market overall.

WHAT'S EXPECTED: Analysts polled by FactSet expect adjusted net income of 46 cents per share on $2.6 billion in revenue.

In April, eBay forecast adjusted net income of 36 cents or 37 cents per share, or 45 or 46 cents excluding items, on $2.55 billion to $2.65 billion in revenue.

LAST YEAR'S QUARTER: In the April-June quarter of 2010, eBay earned 31 cents per share, or 40 cents per share excluding one-time items, on $2.2 billion in revenue.