Yahoo ended the quarter with more than $12 billion in cash and marketable securities of which $9.4 billion was attributed to the sale of a portion of Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA). The company expects a tax bill of $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2015 related to the sale of Alibaba shares.
Display revenues ex-TAC, Yahoo’s bread and butter, slipped 6% from $421 million in the year-ago quarter to $396 million. The company sold 24% more ads, but the price per ad fell by an equal amount compared with the second quarter of 2013.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said:
In Q3, we saw mobile revenues in excess of $200 million on a GAAP basis. Further, we estimate that our gross revenues in mobile will exceed $1.2 billion in revenue this year. We have invested deeply in mobile and we are seeing those investments pay off. Not only are our mobile products attracting praise and engagement from users and industry awards, they are generating meaningful revenue for Yahoo.
Search revenue rose 6% on an ex-TAC basis year-over-year from $426 million to $450 million. Paid clicks were flat with the third quarter of 2013; and price-per-click was up about 17%.
The company repurchased a net $933 million worth of its own stock in the quarter. For the full third quarter and the fourth quarter to date the company has repurchased $1.6 billion in stock and has returned $1.4 billion to stockholders as part of the company’s commitment “to return at least half of the after-tax IPO proceeds.
Yahoo will present its fourth-quarter outlook during the conference call later today. The consensus fourth quarter analysts’ estimate calls for EPS of $0.31 on revenues of $1.17 billion. For the full year the estimates are EPS of $1.39 on revenues of $4.34 billion.
Shares are up about 2.5% in after-hours trading Tuesday, at $41.23 in a 52-week range of $31.70 to $44.01. Shares closed the regular trading session up about 2.3% at $40.18. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $43.70 before today’s results were announced.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks