Is Mayer Responsible For Yahoo Inc. (YHOO)’s Stock Appreciation?

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Marissa Mayer has introduced a great deal of changes in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) since she was appointed as the chief executive and shares of the company have surged more than 70 percent in last 12  months.

So, has the stocks gained due to strategies implemented by Mayer or there are other reasons? Let’s find out.

Is Mayer Responsible For Yahoo Inc. (YHOO)'s Stock Appreciation?

Changes since Mayer Joined Yahoo

Within the first year of her appointment, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) acquired Tumblr in a billion dollar deal along with various other deals in order to incorporate fresh ideas in the company. Yahoo CEO Mayer, who was previously with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), tried to renovate significant features which include mail and popular weather app for iPhones and Flickr, the photo sharing site.

Since her term as CEO in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), millions of dollars has been returned to the shareholders in the form of stock purchase program.

Analysts are not convinced

However, according to the experts the surge in share price is not due to steps taken by Mayer. Brian Wieser, analyst at Pivotal Research said, “Outside observers see a new CEO and that the stock’s up a lot. People connect the two but they don’t have too much to do with each other in this instance”. He further says that the value of shares is increasing due to growth in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.

According to Weiser, the surge in stock value is largely contributed by its joint venture with Japanese internet company SoftBank.

Investors and analysts are not very much convinced and feel that Yahoo should increase its traffic or ad revenues. However, Alibaba and its success is backing Yahoo at a time when it is struggling to increase ad revenues and is in the process of a turnaround strategy.

“It would be really hard for [Yahoo] to be worth meaningfully less from where it is,” says Mr. Wieser. “From this point, you could say there is another 18 to 24 months to do something with it.”

Investors looking forward to Tuesday’s earnings

At present, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) should develop a strategy and focus on attracting users to make revenue from the ad growth. The strategy adopted by Yahoo will become clearer in the second year. Mayer has supervised many acquisitions in her term, and how much these acquisitions can add to the profits of Yahoo will be clear in the second year, says a report from The Financial Times.

Flickr has been given a new look along with incorporating British new app Summly to Yahoo news. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has come to a long way and made rapid changes in the recent months. Investors would want to know the impact of renovation in products on the traffic and time spent during the results on Tuesday.

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