Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clint E. who wrote (21940)	7/7/1999 8:43:00 PM
From: Clint E.	Respond to of 69867

Wednesday July 7, 7:53 pm Eastern Time, Yahoo posts sharp rise in 2nd-qtr profits By Duncan Martell PALO ALTO, Calif., July 7 (Reuters) - Internet search directory Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) posted a sharp rise in second quarter earnings on Wednesday, paced by strong advertising revenues, and easily topped Wall Street forecasts. Yahoo said profits before charges for the second quarter ended June 30 rose to $28.3 million, or 11 cents a share, from the year ago's profit before charges of $1.46 million, or 1 cent a share. Analysts had forecast Yahoo would earn 8 cents a share, according to First Call Corp. Revenues for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company more than doubled to $115.2 million from $44.9 million a year-ago, surpassing some analyst forecasts of $103 million in revenues. The stock of the No. 1 Internet search directory jumped nearly $6 in after-hours trading to $173 on the news, which was announced after the close of regular trading, but still failed to recoup its losses for the day. Yahoo stock had fallen $8.06 in regular Nasdaq trading to $167.06. In a conference call with analysts and broadcast over the Internet, Yahoo executives highlighted growth of Yahoo sites and properties outside the United States. They said that more than 50 percent of Yahoo users will come from outside the United States in the next several years, up from the current 30 percent. In addition, Chief Financial Officer Gary Valenzuela noted that four of Yahoo's non-U.S. sites, in Japan, Britain, France and Germany were at least breaking even financially. The results showed, analysts said, that Yahoo was indeed on its way to building a global brand. They also said that augured well for Yahoo's strategy of going beyond just the personal computer. ''Yahoo is in position to become a truly global brand and that's going to be extraordinarily valuable,'' said Paul Noglows, an analyst at Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco. ''Yahoo will really go beyond the PC and be ubiquitous on all sorts of access devices.'' Yahoo also added Procter & Gamble Co. as a customer -- an important psychological win because it shows consumer-goods makers are embracing the Internet as a viable and worthwhile advertising medium. ''This should be a good thing for the entire industry,'' Yahoo President Jeff Mallett said in an interview. Yahoo said it registered an average of 310 million page views a day in June compared with an average 235 million in March, and added that it had more than 80 million unique users in June. The rise in page views reflected Yahoo's acquisition of Web site-hosting company GeoCities for about $4.6 billion earlier this year. ''Dollars follow eyeballs,'' said Yahoo Chief Executive Tim Koogle said on the conference call. Yahoo now boasts 65 million registered users, up from 47 million. On the conference call, Yahoo executives said average revenue per customer rose to $43,000 in the second quarter from $40,000 in the first. They also said the company's operating profit margin was 32 percent, reflecting good cost controls. Yahoo executives also reiterated that revenue growth in the current, third quarter will be slightly weaker than in the second quarter due to seasonality, noting that advertising revenues typically slow during the U.S. summer months. Including charges for acquisitions and other items, however, Yahoo lost $15.1 million, or 7 cents a share compared with a loss of $14.2 million, or 8 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. Because Yahoo is the first Internet company to report second quarter results and since it is the largest Internet search service, investors and analysts have come to see it as a bellwether for the Internet industry. A number of big Internet names, such as online book and music seller Amazon.com and auction site Ebay Inc. will be reporting earnings over the next few weeks. ''Everyone looks to Yahoo to set the bar and then those that follow are measured against that standard,'' said analyst Dawn Simon at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York.