eBay shares gain 5% as Morgan Stanley lifts target to $132

what happened

eBay shares advanced 5% to $117.80 on Monday, making the company the strongest performer in the S&P 500 for the session. Morgan Stanley raised its target for the stock to $132 from $127, kept an Overweight rating and selected eBay as its leading idea. Meta Platforms, Biogen and Medtronic were also among the session’s best performers.

Barron's reported that Morgan Stanley analyst Nathan Feather sees live commerce, in which customers buy through interactive livestreams, as a central growth driver. He estimated the live-selling market at $27 billion and said eBay Live is already responsible for an estimated 40% of the company’s growth. Feather added that eBay’s gross merchandise volume, or GMV, expansion had exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic investors.

The firm lifted its estimate for eBay’s annual GMV growth between 2026 and 2030 to about 6.5%, from roughly 5.8%. Feather likened the platform to the New York Stock Exchange for used goods, saying rapid resales through auctions increase transaction velocity and support higher GMV. He said live commerce has long been successful in China but has yet to become established in Western markets, although the sector remains in its early stages.

eBay was on course for a fourth straight daily advance. The shares had moved steadily higher since Oct. 6 after trading in a narrow range near their 50-day moving average of about $107. They were also approaching the record closing level of $118.96 reached on May 20. The stock is up 34% this year and 31% over the past 12 months, compared with a 14% gain for the S&P 500 this year. The report was written by Kit Norton. Barron's is operated by Dow Jones & Co. but is published independently of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

why it matters

Morgan Stanley’s higher valuation target and upgraded GMV forecast drew attention to eBay’s outperformance within the S&P 500. Investors are focusing on whether live commerce can become a durable source of additional platform activity.

instruments