When Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) reports first-quarter results after markets close Tuesday, investors are likely to be paying more attention to what the company says about its current quarter and how it plans to use its windfall from the coming initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba, a China-based Internet company in which Yahoo owns a 24% stake with a total value estimated at around $36 billion.

Analysts expect Yahoo! to post earnings per share (EPS) of $0.37 on revenues of $1.08 billion. Both figures are lower sequentially, and EPS is lower than in the same period a year ago though revenues are up slightly from $1.07 billion.

Yahoo! shares reached a 12-month peak at $41.72 in January, a gain of about 73% compared with the 52-week low. But about half that gain has evaporated as investors question the company’s video strategy.

The share price gains were almost entirely due to $3.3 billion in share buybacks last year, and if Yahoo! hints that it intends to do the same with a large piece of its payoff from the Alibaba IPO, the shares could take off again. However, if CEO Marissa Meyer comes out beating the drum for a full-scale assault on video programming, shareholders could be less enthusiastic.

Yahoo! is also believed to be preparing to take a run at YouTube, the Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) unit that absolutely owns streaming video both on the desktop and mobile devices.

To make any kind of dent in any part of the streaming video universe Yahoo! will have to throw big money around. That will not make shareholders happy, especially if the company’s core business is relatively stagnant. The company’s forward price-to-earnings ratio is about 18.9, while the ratio for the trailing twelve months is about 26.6. Investors have already hinted which way they think the stock price is headed. Yahoo! has to get them to reverse direction again tomorrow.

Yahoo! shares were up about 2.2% in late morning trading on Monday, at $33.59 in a 52-week range of $22.70 to $41.72.

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