Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s 4Q earnings will be released later in the day. The earnings call comes amid notable anticipations, which was fueled by last year’s leadership change that saw former Google executive, Marissa Mayer, join a then troubled Yahoo as CEO. Marissa, who was Google’s first female engineer, joined Yahoo with a promise of change.
Earlier last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mayer exclaimed her bold promise of change. The 37 year old CEO laid down various strategies that would help Yahoo reverse its lamentable fortunes, citing what she described as returning the company ‘back to its roots’. Incidentally, some of the strategies Mayer emphasized were already started taking shape last year. For instance, she has already started changing the company’s culture by pushing employees to actively interact with the company’s users. During the earnings call later in the day, investors and other stakeholders will be interested to see whether Mayer’s new strategies has materially affect the company’s performance.
Q4 revenue is tracking in-line with the Street: Piper Jaffray
Renowned research firm, Piper Jaffray, is inclined to believe that Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s Q4 revenue is tracking in-line with the Street’s expectation of $1.21 billion. Jaffray’s, which reiterated its neutral view on Yahoo, based its revenue forecast on its daily ad checks on Yahoo. The research firm also argues that Q4 net display revenue will edge up 2 percent year-over-year and a greater 24 percent compared with Q3.
While Jaffray has pointed out that the company’s shares are trending positively in light of the share buyback , it maintains that the fundamentals are yet to show any notable improvement; suggesting that Marissa Mayer still has much to prove.
During the earnings call, Jaffray expects Marissa to give deep insight on her plans for mobile and personalization. The research firm is looking forward to a detailed progress report on the share buyback and a possible follow up on how Yahoo may allocate cash with regard to acquisitions. In addition, Jaffray will be keen to hear what Mayer has to say about search, considering the recurrent mentions that Mayer has made on the same.
Wall Street analysts predict a profit of 27 cents per share, a slight increase from 24 cents in Q4 2011. At the time of writing, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s share price was pegged at $20.30. The big wig’s share price has been trending upward from lows of up to $15 in September 2012.
