EBay has forecast quarterly revenue below Wall Street estimates after reporting disappointing growth in the sales volume on its platform during the key Christmas quarter.
This overshadowed news of the online market place's first-ever dividend.
Ebay's shares were down 1% in after-hours trading, reversing course after an initial jump following eBay's move to pay a quarterly dividend of 14 cents per share.
The lacklustre forecast comes as California-based eBay faces demands from two prominent activist shareholders to sell some divisions and restructure others amid fierce competition with Amazon.com and other online retailers.
EBay said consumer spending in December, a normally busy shopping period, was slow despite more buyers using its platform.
Its chief executive Devin Wenig also predicted more near-term pressure on eBay's gross merchandise volume (GMV) - the value of all products sold on its websites - as the company reduced some marketing spending.
He said he was confident, however, the company would boost GMV in the long run and benefit from new ad sales and a payments initiative.
"We believe that the actions we're taking in '19 will set us up well," he said on a conference call with analysts.
EBay forecast revenue of $2.55 billion to $2.60 billion for the current quarter, compared with analysts' target of $2.66 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
GMV overall rose just 1% in the December quarter and also missed analysts' estimates, while it dipped 1% in the US.
But results for the final quarter of 2018 showed eBay's sales had climbed 6.3% year-over-year to $2.88 billion, exceeding Wall Street's estimates.
A multi-year effort by eBay to make its platform simpler to users, by introducing grouped listings, personal recommendations and an easier-to-use payment process is helping attract shoppers.
EBay had 179 million active buyers at the end of the December quarter, about 2 million more than the previous quarter.
The company also announced an increase to its share buybacks by $4 billion, reflecting the influence of eBay's activist investors.
EBay said its quarterly profit from continuing operations reached $763m. This compared with a loss of $2.6 billion a year earlier, when eBay recorded a one-time expense of more than $3 billion.
