Wall Street had expected the company to report earnings of 67 cents per share excluding the charge. It reported slightly over that, at 70 cents per share.
Shares fell 4.02% in after hours trading.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company's revenue increased 14% compared with the same period in 2013, to $4.26 billion.
The company touted its growing role in global commerce as well as customers using it on mobile devices. Mobile downloads attracted 6.5 million new customers in the quarter, the company said in a release.
"We delivered a strong first quarter, with enabled commerce volume up 24% and revenue up 14%," said eBay CEO John Donahoe.
There had been pressure for eBay to split its online payment system, PayPal, from its e-commerce portion, in part from activist investor Carl Icahn.
However, "We affirmed that eBay and PayPal are better together," Donahoe said in a conference call Tuesday. They are "both great businesses, and they support and enhance each other."
"We have put this distraction behind us," he said. "Now our full attention is focused on growth and execution."
Overall, the earnings were in line with market expectations, although the outlook for the second quarter was slightly below estimates, said Colin Sebastian, with Robert W. Baird & Co., a San Francisco-based financial services company.
"PayPal performance continues to be strong, while the eBay Marketplace was a little bit softer, in part due to some fee changes at StubHub," he said.
In its earning release, the company said revenue from the company's PayPal online payment system grew to $1.8 billion. According to eBay, PayPal gained 5.8 million new active registered accounts to end the quarter at 148 million, up 16%.
Analysts expect that trend to continue.
"Recent growth trends for the company have been driven by its ! payments category as well as its non-auction e-commerce category; we expect both trends to remain," said Edward S. Williams with BMO Capital Markets.
Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images NEW YORK -- General Electric posted lower first-quarter net income than a year ago because last year's results included the sale of NBC Universal. But the company said its industrial divisions performed well and the economic environment was "positive." GE (GE) said Thursday that it earned $3 billion on revenue of $34.18 billion in the year's first three months, down from $3.5 billion on revenue of $34.94 billion during the same period last year. On a per share basis, GE earned 30 cents. Adjusted to reflect continuing operations and to remove the effect of one-time charges, GE earned 33 cents a share, down 15 percent from a year ago. Analysts had expected GE to earn 32 cents a share, on average, on sales of $34.45 billion, according to FactSet. GE shares were up 2 percent in premarket trading an hour before the market open. GE has a good view of the world economy because it has manufacturing plants and sales operations around the world. In a presentation to investors, GE reported that European operations performed better than expected while developing nations saw growth. Its U.S. business picked up in March, evidence that the slowdown this past winter was related to frigid weather. GE sold its remaining interest in NBC Universal last year as part of a plan to focus on building and servicing big, complicated industrial equipment such as aircraft engines, power plant turbines and oil and gas drilling equipment. The next step for GE will be to complete a public offering of its consumer credit card division, expected later this year. It's a move that analysts support, and the company has been able to grow its revenue and profit at these industrial divisions in recent quarters. Christian Mayes, an analyst at Edward Jones, said it will likely be until well into 2015 before GE makes enough progress in its transformation to see strong growth its overall results. "This is such a huge company that it's going to take a while," he said. "But they are making progress, and seeing some decent growth in the industrial side." Operating profit from industrial operations rose 12 percent in the quarter, the company said, as strong growth in their bigger units made up for lackluster results in smaller ones. Oil and gas, power and water, and aviation divisions all posted sharply higher profits. Transportation and appliances slipped, along with the company's tiny energy management division. But the company is still working to cut costs in what it calls a "simplification" effort. GE said that it cut costs by $254 million in the quarter, on its way to a goal of cutting $1 billion in costs for the year.
Jim West/Alamy Last week, we talked about investing, the second circle of wealth in my series of "Six Absolute Necessities for Acquiring Long-Term Wealth." The third is guaranteed income. When I study people with successful retirements, filled with abundance and options, almost all have things in common: They carry very little, if any, personal debt. They have stable, secure income from multiple sources that they can set their watch by every month Starting about 10 years before they retire, they begin shifting their assets from riskier investments to low- or no-risk income assets. A mortgage is generally the biggest debt most of us have. Many argue that you should never pay off your house because the equity you put into it is tied up and not making you money. They might recommend borrowing as much as you can now because interest rates are low. I say you can have the best of both worlds. First, pay off your mortgage before you retire. By adding small amounts directed to your principle every month, you will take months, even years off your payoff date. When your house is paid off, get the biggest equity line of credit you can. This way, if you see an attractive investment opportunity, you can put your equity to use, and if you don't, you have removed the pressure of a big mortgage payment in retirement. If you can pay off your mortgage while you are working, why not now shift that payment over to a solid savings or income product? This could work out to tens of thousands of extra dollars producing monthly income for when you retire. An abundant retirement is about strong positive cash flow that you can count on for years to come. Do you have any idea how much money you need to retire every month? Do you know where you can get that income from? Do you have enough money for home health care or long-term care? Are you protected from big market downturns during your retirement years? How much will inflation eat into that monthly income needed? Can You Answer These Questions? All these questions must be part of an income plan. We calculate these for clients all over the country. First, know how much income you and your spouse will receive from Social Security when you retire. You can get an estimate from the Social Security Administration. If you believe that number is at risk because of issues with Social Security, you better start putting more away and growing it safely. If you need $5,000 per month to retire and the Social Security for you and your spouse is only $3,500, then you have a $1,500 shortfall. Do you have a pension? How much will that be when you begin to draw it? Do you have a 401(k) or Individual Retirement Account? How long could that account last if you need to draw $1,500 a month -- $18,000 in a year? Will you have to pay taxes on what you take out? If you have a 401(k) or traditional IRA, the answer is yes. If you lose 50 percent of your capital to a bear market, how long will you be able to get $18,000 per year? As you get to be in what we call the "retirement danger zone," which is 10 years before your projected retirement, you need to start shifting assets away from market risk and over to guaranteed products. A solid fixed indexed annuity with a long-term income rider might be a very good call. I wrote an article about the different types of annuities and how to purchase one that fits your needs. A lifetime income rider (state and product variations exist) will guarantee that you have a certain amount of income (depending on how much you have in your annuity and at what age you start withdrawing) for you and your spouse's life. If you live to be very old, your normal retirement funds might run out, but a lifetime income rider guarantees that income stream regardless of what happens to the underlying cash in the account. Also if you have five to 10 years, you have time for that income rider to grow. Many income riders offer 6 percent and more guaranteed growth every year. When you purchase a $200,000 annuity, many companies might offer a 10 percent bonus on your initial purchase price so your starting amount would be $220,000. When you add compound growth at 6 percent over 10 years, your income rider would top $400,000. Then you would start to draw your lifetime income at 6 percent of the $400,000, giving you $24,000 a year income for you and your spouse's life. Presto! You have filled your income gap. If you have the resources to purchase another annuity, you might get one with a cost of living clause to hedge against inflation.
