EBay's Stock Falls After Cantor Fitzgerald Downgrade On Growth Concerns

EBay Inc.'s stock fell 1% in premarket trade Thursday, after the e-commerce company was downgraded at Cantor Fitzgerald, which cited concerns over slow growth following the spinoff of PayPal Holdings Inc. . Analyst Youssef Squali lowered his rating to hold, after being at buy since March 2013. His new post-spinoff stock price target of $27 is 3% above Wednesday's closing price of $26.20. Squali said gross merchandise value growth has remained pressured by a security breach and search engine optimization changes at Google in May 2014, as same-store sales growth the last couple months trailed rival Amazon.com by wide margins, according to ChannelAdvisor, and as auctions dropped sharply. The company's guidance for GMV growth of 3% to 5% in 2015 and flat to 5% in 2016 implies no material pick up in the next 18 months. "We opt to move to the sidelines as we await signs of sustainable growth re-acceleration," Squali wrote in a note to clients. The stock has gained 2.9% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has lost 7.8%.