¡¡BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- World leading e-commerce company Ebay Inc. announced Wednesday it will repurchase up to 2 billion of common stock within the next two years because of its 24 percent jump in fourth-quarter of 2006 profit.

    The stock buyback is considered a quick way to pump up a flagging stock price -- if companies have plenty of cash and are confident about future earnings growth, said Meg Whitman, the company's president and chief executive.

    This is the second major repurchase program at eBay in the past year. The company repurchased 31 million shares for about 1 billion U.S. dollars last quarter.

    In 2006, eBay earned 1.13 billion dollars, or 79 U.S. cents per share, up 4 percent from 1.08 billion dollars, or 78 cents per share, in 2005. Excluding stock-based compensation costs and other expenses, eBay in 2006 earned 1.49 billion dollars, or 1.05 dollars per share, up nearly 24 percent from 1.2 billion dollars, or 86 cents per share, a year earlier, media reported.

    The solid earnings report and buyback come almost exactly two years after eBay stock slipped precipitously on concerns about whether the company could withstand competition from other e-commerce leaders, some analysts said the stock may now be a value relative to many of its rivals.

    "This is a stock that since January of 2005 has done nothing but fall down the stairs of Wall Street with a face plant on each step down," said David M. Garrity, director of research for Dinosaur Securities LLC. "Now that they appear to have hit bottom, there's clearly an opportunity here for management to restore their relationship with the investment community, and certainly this enhanced buyback program is an important step in the right direction."

    (Agencies)