Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2013 after the bell rang today, Tuesday April 16. The firm revealed that it had earned 38 cents per share in the opening months of 2013 on revenue of $1.07 billion. In today’s market Yahoo shares trended down a fraction, closing at $23.79.
In the first quarter of 2012, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) reported earnings of 24 cents per share on revenues totaling $1.1 billion. The company is in the middle of a transformation at the moment under the guidance of CEO Marissa Mayer. Part of that transformation appears to involve a move toward a partnership with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Analyst consensus estimates for the first quarter of 2013 was for earnings of 25 cents per share earnings on revenue of $1.1 billion. In the hours before the release of the earnings report, whisper numbers suggested that Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) would announce earnings at the upper end of its guidance, beating analysts’ estimates.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) will have a conference call at 5 p.m. EST to discuss this earnings report with analysts and investors. The big issues on the minds of analysts include the goal of the recent acquisitions by the company, and the focus on improvement of the company’s products. Analysts will also be hoping for a slow in the decline of Yahoo! as a desktop search engine.
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) core businesses like sports and news, and their ad sell through rates, are one of the most important metrics to judge the company by at this stage of its transformation. Weakness in the company’s cores could weaken momentum behind further improvement in the firm’s bottom line, and its share price.
This earnings report, and the conference call, is the first time that the company’s new CFO Ken Goldman has officiated. Analysts will be studying his reporting style and his guidance figures for clues about how the firm’s earnings reports, in particular forward looking estimates, will be dealt with under new leadership of the finance department.
So far in 2013, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) shares have risen by about 20 percent, outperforming all the indexes. Investors in the company are hoping that it can leverage its brand to redesign its business model over the coming months. The steps taken by the firm’s leadership have engendered some confidence, but there is more to do at the company.
