Yahoo rallies on Q3 report, raised Q4 outlook 13.10.2004 14:09 Zurück Headlines
SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) -- Shares of Yahoo surged more than 3 percent in
Wednesday's pre-open after the company reported third-quarter revenue that
exceeded expectations, and raised its outlook for the fourth quarter.
The stock rallied $1.17, or 3.4 percent, to $35.40 in Instinet.
Late Tuesday, Yahoo said it earned $253 million, or 17 cents per share.
Excluding a net impact of $129 million related to the sale of its investment in
Google and a tax benefit, the company earned $124 million, or 9 cents per
share, up from 5 cents last year. Analysts pegged Yahoo's earnings to come in at
9 cents a share.
The online media company said sales grew 154 percent to $907 million. Excluding
the cost it pays to Web distribution partners, revenue grew to $655 million from
$357 million in the comparable period a year ago.
Analysts expected Yahoo to generate $644 million. But on the high end, at least
one analyst predicted that Yahoo would draw in as much as $676 million.
Importantly, Yahoo raised its outlook for the fourth quarter and the full year.
Yahoo said it expects to generate between $710 million and $760 million in
revenue in the fourth quarter. For the full year, Yahoo expects to generate
sales of between $2.5 billion and $2.57 billion.
Prior to the new outlook, analysts expected Yahoo to generate sales of $730
million for the quarter and $2.5 billion for the year.
Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker called Yahoo's report "impressive," and reiterated
her "overweight" rating.
"We maintain that investors underestimate the positive impact on-going usability
improvements will have on boosting user engagement, advertising inventory growth
and related revenue and profit growth for Yahoo," Meeker said.
Piper Jaffray followed by reiterated its "outperform" rating on the stock and
raised its price target to $38 from $35, recommending investors continue to buy
the stock ahead of the seasonally strong fourth quarter.
"We believe much is left to be seen in the fourth quarter and especially in 2005
as many of the initiatives that Yahoo recently launched should start to bear
fruit," said Analyst Safa Rashtchy.
Breaking down the quarter
Marketing services, which includes revenue from paid search and branded
advertising, grew to $765 million, up 212 percent from last year.
"Media sales benefited particularly from autos, finance, travel and
entertainment," said Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, on a conference call following the
release. "Branded advertising continues to go from strength to strength," he
told listeners on the call.
Yahoo does not break down the marketing services revenue, but Yahoo CFO Sue
Decker said that Yahoo saw "higher organic volume in the search business," than
previously expected. Additionally, Decker said that search benefited from the
expansion of the number of keywords or keyword combinations that had sponsors
attached to them. The paid-search business was estimated to grow to $273
million, up 198 percent, according to Goldman Sachs. The higher search sales are
assuming price-per-click rises 2 percent from the previous quarter.
Fees from Yahoo mail, personals and the Internet access business rose 31 percent
to $104 million, driven by the addition of Rogers Cable subscribers and seasonal
strength in Yahoo's fantasy football service. Last quarter, Yahoo generated the
same amount of fees, but it had 6.4 million paying subscribers. This is
primarily because the fees from the Rogers Cable subscribers were added late in
the quarter, said Decker. Yahoo ended the quarter with 7.6 million paying
subscribers, bringing it closer to having 8 million by year's end.
Yahoo's listings revenue was $37 million, up 15 percent from last year, but down
from $38 million in the prior quarter.
This story was supplied by CBSMarketWatch. For further information see
www.cbsmarketwatch.com.
Greetz f-h  http://www.anmeldung.boerse-total.de
|
Thread abonnieren
