Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) released its earnings report for the three months through June this afternoon, Tuesday July 15, right after the market closed on Wall Street. The company showed earnings per share of $0.37 for the period on revenue totaling $1.04 billion. On today’s market traders showed anxiety about the release and sent the stock down a fraction to finish the day at $35.61.
Before the release of this afternoon’s earnings report analysts were looking for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) to show earnings of 38 cents per share by consensus. Revenue was expected to come in at $1.1 billion for the quarter, which Yahoo records as its second of fiscal 2014. In the same three months of 2013 the internet search provider showed earnings per share of 35 cents on revenue of $1.1 billion. The consensus figures are taken from a Bloomberg survey of analysts following the firm.
Core business, new strategy
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has shown that it can stem the flow of users away from some of its core services, but it hasn’t yet demonstrated an ability to create new businesses that might allow it to increase cash flow. Analysts are expecting the company’s revenue to hold steady at around $1.1 billion per quarter, but few see a path ahead for the company. CEO Marissa Mayer has promised a lot, but she has yet to make good on a substantial delivery.
For now, however, the conversation surrounding this afternoon’s release is likely to only lightly touch on core business at Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), and avoid the company’s future strategy for the most part. The only rumor of strategy says that the company is looking to acquire AOL, though that buzz is not supported by much of anything. There is something more important weighing on the minds of the company’s shareholders, and Tumblr isn’t it.
Alibaba dominates Yahoo conversation
No matter what Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) puts in its earnings reports, the conversation will circle back to the company’s most important asset, Alibaba. Rumored to be going public in August, the Chinese web giant will not be such a big part of Yahoo’s revenue stream for much longer. That means that the company’s income is going to fall, though it will receive a mass of cash in exchange.
The problem for Marissa Mayer, and the company’s shareholders, is judging how much of an effect AliBaba has had on the company’s recent rise in value. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has gained 30% in the last twelve months, and has more than doubled in value in the last two years. Some of that rise is probably due to the leadership of Mayer, but not all voices agree on that particular point.
One theory suggests that a large portion of those who own Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) stock do so because of the Chinese connection. Once Alibaba becomes an investment vehicle in its own right, according to that theory, money will flee from Yahoo. Whether or not that comes true remains to be seen, but it reflects the general feeling about the weight that Alibaba levies on Yahoo’s stock.
