I was hearing on cnbc last week during the rally in YHOO that the analyst were projecting 5 cents in earnings for the quarter but that the "whisper number" was 7 to 8 cents.
According to the Media Central article on revenues (as of the end of Feb), the ad revenues for the internet were not showing much increase over the prior quarter, which is what, in fact, Yahoo had warned. Why are they setting the public up for the "whisper number"?
Let's look at Yahoo's "real" earnings last quarter and calculate what that means. They quoted 5 cents on on earnings of $1,251,000 + interest income of $1,227,000 which equals $2,478,000 (excluding charges). Of the earnings probably somewhere around $700,000 was revenue from four11. So the real earnings from operations for Yahoo was around $527,000 or 1 cent. The growth in earnings must come from a starting point of 1 cent then. To make the whisper number, that equates to $3.9 million to $4.4 million in earnings. Subtract out the $1.2 million in interest income and Yahoo has to grow earnings from operations to approximately $2.7 million (using the lower 7 cents) or 400% (and that is assuming four11 expenses equal the revenues this quarter) This in a quarter that has been warned to be essentially flat?
The public just may be getting set up on this one. Either that or all the information that has been handed out to date is false. |
