These three come with a tech advantage

Article Excerpt

In addition to big banks, we recommend investors widen their Finance holdings with non-bank stocks like these three. Each dominates its niche market, and should continue to profit from the rise in e-commerce as well as online payment systems. We like all three, and see two as buys for right now. EBAY INC. $43 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $43.0 billion; Price to-sales ratio: 4.6; No dividend paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) operates e-commerce websites where sellers pay fees to auction items or offer them at fixed prices. The company also operates several other websites, including StubHub (ticket sales). These services are in addition to its local websites (among them Kijiji in Canada); they sell classified ads in over 1,500 cities. In the three months ended December 31, 2017, the company earned $618 million, up 2.8% from $601 million a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share gained…