E-commerce company eBay Inc. on Wednesday forecast current-quarter profit largely below expectations, sending its shares down as much as 4.5 percent in extended trading.

Ebay said it expects current-quarter adjusted profit of 43-45 cents per share. Analysts on average were expecting 47 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said gross merchandise volume — the total value of all goods sold on its websites — rose 2.4 percent to $20.95 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, 2017. But the result fell short of analysts' average estimate of $21.06 billion, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

EBay has been facing relentless competition from much larger rival Amazon.com Inc.

To lure more shoppers and better compete with Amazon as well as traditional retailers, the company has made several changes to its platform.

The San Jose, California-based company's net income rose to $1.04 billion, or 94 cents per share in the first quarter, from $482 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 49 cents per share, beating analysts' average expectation of 48 cents per share.

Revenue rose 3.7 percent to $2.22 billion.