Yandex N.V. (YNDX) -NasdaqGS
24.01  +2.56 (11.93%) 9:45AM EDT - Nasdaq Real Time Price
By Ilya Khrennikov - Apr 25, 2013 8:05 AM CT
bloomberg.com
Yandex NV (YNDX), Russia’s largest Internet search engine, said profit gained 79 percent in the first quarter and raised its 2013 sales target because of growth in online advertising.
Net income climbed to 2.25 billion rubles ($72 million) from 1.26 billion rubles a year earlier, Yandex said in a statement today. Sales advanced 36 percent to 8 billion rubles, while the adjusted margin on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was 43.8 percent.
“Yandex posted strong results, beating analyst estimates both on profit and Ebitda margin,” Anna Lepetukhina, an analyst at Moscow-based Sberbank Investment Research, said by telephone. “Internet advertising is growing at a good pace.”
Sales may rise 30 percent to 35 percent this year, Yandex said in the statement, upgrading its guidance in February of 28 percent to 32 percent. First-quarter revenue from text-based advertising added 35 percent, while revenue from display advertising surged 48 percent, Yandex said.
The company said today it has purchased 2 million shares since March when it announced a buyback program for as many as 12 million shares to support stock prices.
Shareholders including Baring Vostok Capital Partners and Chief Executive Officer Arkady Volozh sold $607 million of Yandex shares in March.
Yandex leads Google Inc. (GOOG) in Russia with more than 60 percent market share, according to Renaissance Capital.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikov@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net |
