Yahoo! Profit Tops Estimate

(RTTNews) - Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) Tuesday posted a 46 percent jump in second-quarter profit. topping Wall Street estimates, on growth in search business as well as the absence of restructuring charges recorded a year ago.

Yahoo! display business continued to slacken as both quantum of advertisements and prices came under pressure, even as total revenues came in line with expectations.

Following the announcement of results, shares of Yahoo! fell 2 percent in after-hours trade on the Nasdaq, but later pulled back.

"Our business saw continued stability, and we launched more products than ever before," said Chief Executive Marissa Mayer.

While Mayer has infused some vitality into the Internet giant, investors are assessing the impact her acquisition strategy will have on the company's bottom line. Mayer is also a strong proponent of mobile technology, and has ramped up the Yahoo! homepage.

In Early July, Yahoo acquired Qwiki Inc., a New York-based start up that makes mobile app for creating videos on Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhones. It has also purchased email and address book management firm Xobni, and in June, closed its $1.1 billion acquisition of New York-based social media network Tumblr.

Yahoo!, based in Sunnyvale, California-based, posted quarterly revenues of $1.14 billion, down 7 percent from $1.22 billion last year.

Excluding traffic acquisition costs, or ex-TAC, - the fees shared with partners - revenues for the quarter were $1.07 billion, compared with $1.08 billion in the prior year. On average, 30 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected revenues of $1.08 billion.

At Search business, revenues ex-TAC grew 5 percent to $403 million. Paid clicks, excluding Korea, jumped about 21 percent, while price-per-click was down 8 percent.

Display business revenues ex-TAC fell 11 percent to $423 million. The number of ads sold on core Yahoo! Properties, excluding Korea, slid 2 percent, while price-per-ad tumbled 12 percent.

Yahoo! reported quarterly net earnings of $331 million or $0.30 per share, up from $226.6 million or $0.18 per share last year, when results included restructuring charges of $129 million.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $386 million or $0.35 per share, compared with $362.6 million or $0.30 per share a year ago. Analysts had a consensus earnings estimate of $0.30 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

YHOO closed Tuesday at $26.88, down 1.68%, on a volume of 30 million shares on the Nasdaq. In after hours, the stock fell $0.17 or %0.63. In the past year, the stock trended in a range of $14.59 - $27.68.