Yahoo Earnings Clobbered Predictions

Sunnyvale based Yahoo! Inc. issued their third quarter earnings and they clobbered predictions in the process. With revenues topping $1.33 billion, Yahoo produced another quarter of record earnings.

"Yahoo! had another record quarter and continued to see solid growth across our business. We introduced a number of new and innovative products and services and continued to provide more effective means for advertisers to engage with consumers," said Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive officer, Yahoo!

"Our ongoing ability to execute against plan and utilize our industry-leading technology continues to position us for long-term growth and enables us to provide our users with the best content and most relevant online experience."

Some of Yahoo's figures included:

Revenues of $1.33 billion for the third quarter of 2005, a 47% increase over the $907 million from the same period last year. Expectations were $930 million, $100 million difference.

Marketing services included $1.16 billion for the same period, up 46% from the $797 million during the same period in 2004

Fees revenue hit $170 million, up 55% from the $110 million from last year. Gross profit was up to $810 million, up 57% over 3Q, 2004. Operating income was $270 million, up 57% over the $172 million from last year and free cash flow up $345 million up 71% from $202 million for the same period in 2004.

Net income hit $254 million or 17 cents a share, up over the project 14 cents a share and right on par with last year's 17 cents a share.

"We are extremely pleased with our third quarter results, which exceeded expectations, showing strong revenue growth, continued profitability, and significant free cash flow," said Susan Decker, chief financial officer, Yahoo! "Our ability to deliver another quarter of record results, while also investing in internal operations and external acquisitions, continues to reinforce the power of our business model."

A strong report was expected as NASDAQ showed its faith in Yahoo on the market today. Yahoo's been playing an aggressive game recently against its competitors like Google and Microsoft. Yahoo added Flickr recently, they've made a deal with Bellsouth and they announced their acquisition of Whereonearth earlier today.

The monster of Mountain View known as Google released their third quarter earnings on Thursday and, as consistent with the industry, reported record revenues. This time they hit $1.578 billion, a notch above Yahoo's reports for the same quarter. This number is up 96% from a year ago and 14% from last quarter.

Google's earnings per share hit $1.32 on 290 million shares outstanding over the $1.19 from the second quarter on 287 million shares. This means a net income climb to $381.2 million over the $52 million last year. Traffic acquisition costs were $530 million.

"Although this is typically a slower season for Internet properties, we had another exceptional quarter," said Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive officer. "Our focus on end users and on quality of information and advertising worldwide continues to work extremely well. We are very pleased with how well this is working at scale."

Google's stock was down slightly at $303,20, down 1.78% after hitting the high for today of $311.13. All of this follows the recent stock offering of Google plunking over 14 million share of stock and then aggressively pursuing its business ventures.

Yesterday, Yahoo offered a great stock report as well and while Google's earnings were higher, it does show that advertising dollars are alive and well and shows no signs of slowing down.