Try these two e-commerce stocks to avoid worst of retail supply chain crunch, Baird analyst says

Published Tue, Sep 7 202112:05 PM EDTUpdated Tue, Sep 7 20214:10 PM EDT

Kevin Stankiewicz @in/kevin-stankiewicz-b5593466 @kevin_stank

Baird senior research analyst Colin Sebastian told CNBC on Tuesday he sees opportunities for investors to buy the stocks of e-commerce related companies that aren't bearing the brunt of pandemic-era supply chain disruptions. "A platform like eBay should do reasonably well in this environment," Sebastian said in an interview on "Squawk on the Street." "They have millions of sellers, so they can diversify where they source product that shows up on their marketplace." Shares of eBay dropped 2.38% Tuesday to close at $74.41 apiece. The losses came during a down day for the S & P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average , as investors worry about the Covid-19 delta variant's impact on the economy. However, eBay's stock remains up 48.66% year to date. According to FactSet, 16 of the 28 Wall Street analysts covering eBay have a hold rating on the stock. Eight analysts rate the stock an equivalent to buy, three rate it overweight, and one individual has an underweight rating. Baird's Sebastian said PayPal is another way to play the e-commerce trade without directly buying shares of a retailer that is trying to combat inventory shortages. Online shoppers can use their PayPal accounts to pay for their purchases from various retailers. "We also like PayPal in this environment. They fund payments. Transaction values should be higher without as much discounting as we've seen in prior years," Sebastian said. Roughly 85% of the 47 analysts covering PayPal rate the stock a buy or overweight, according to FactSet, while nearly 13% have a hold rating on it. Just one analyst rates PayPal a sell, per FactSet. Shares of PayPal rose 1.43% Tuesday, finishing the session at $293.26 apiece. The stock is up 25.2% year to date, but sits nearly 6% below its all-time intraday high of $310.16 on July 26. As of Friday, Sebastian had an outperform rating on PayPal and eBay. Heading into the holiday shopping season, Sebastian also said he felt better about Amazon compared to some of its other peers. "They do have a lot of their own ocean freight capacity reserved. They do have a marketplace where they can source inventory from a lot of different third-party merchants, so we're less concerned about Amazon than perhaps other retailers or other companies that are more dependent on traditional shipping providers or manufacturers for product."

An employee walks past eBay signage at the company's headquarters in San Jose, California.

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