By around 11 AM ET on Tuesday, eBay (EBAY) shares were trading up as much as 6.2%, leading the S&P 500 index, in its biggest rally in over 7 months. Certain investors believe that the rally was spurred by a report by TheDeal.com that stated, citing a source close to the matter, that certain activist investors have expressed interest in the stock.
According to the report, either it could be Carl Icahn, who had previously forced the online marketplace platform to jettison payment services arm PayPal (PYPL) in 2015; or Daniel S. Loeb, the chief executive of New York-based Third Point Management.
In the first two hours of trading, volumes soared to 10.3 million shares, versus the average full-day trading volume seen by the stock of approximately 9.5 million shares.
eBay, which has shed 16% of its value in the trailing 12 months, closed over 1% in green on Monday. The stock had earlier in February soared to a record of $46.19, when it reported that it was taking over the remaining payment processing works from PayPal, with the help of a new partner, Adyen.
On a year-to-date basis, the stock has lost 14%, compared to a 7% rally by the S&P 500 Index.
eBay is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on October 30, and investors will be looking at how much the online marketplace had been able to exploit the bullish sentiments in the e-commerce sphere to improve user base and volume.