Replies to post #91159 on Coffee Sipping Big Board Stocks

[EZ2]

OMG --- they give you computer privileges in prison????

Just not right! :-(

[EZ2]

Alibaba is a large part of the current YHOO hype --- and it will continue to be until IPO.


Time for Alibaba to Fill In Blanks

MARKETWATCH 7:46 AM ET 04/16/14

Symbol Last Price Change
YHOO 34.21down 0 (0%)
AMZN 316.08up 0 (0%)
EBAY 53.9up 0 (0%)
QUOTES AS OF 04:00:00 PM ET 04/15/2014

Alibaba's fourth-quarter numbers look good. But as the Chinese e-commerce giant gears up for a U.S. listing, it still has a lot of questions to answer about its future direction.

Revenue rose by 66% from a year earlier, with growth accelerating from 51% in the third quarter, but that's not a big surprise. It has been well known for months that Alibaba enjoyed a blowout "single's day" on Nov. 11, when merchants on its two shopping platforms offer deep discounts.

What is more encouraging is that Alibaba's operating profit margin, which has been on a declining trend for the past two quarters, rebounded sharply to a high of 54% from 44% in the previous quarter.

The bare-bones numbers, released by Alibaba shareholder Yahoo(YHOO)!(YHOO) on Tuesday, don't provide any explanation for the trends in revenue and margins. These are among the blanks that will have to be filled in by Alibaba's regulatory filings, possibly coming as soon as this month, for its initial public offering.

The company's likely profitability will be a key concern for investors. Alibaba is highly profitable compared with many e-commerce firms thanks to its asset-light strategy, which largely leaves the burden of delivery and warehousing to third parties. There have been indications that the company will start to invest more in this area but just how much is unclear. Smaller e-commerce rival JD.com, which is also preparing for a U.S. listing, pitches its in-house logistics capabilities as a differentiator, but isn't yet profitable.

Similarly, Alibaba hasn't been very forthcoming on the reasons for many of its acquisitions. So far this year, it has spent more than $2.6 billion, nearly three quarters of 2013 net profit, investing in an online mapping firm, a department-store chain and a film studio. This month, an investment firm controlled by Chairman Jack Ma and another Alibaba co-founder spent $1.05 billion to buy a 20% stake in a cable and Internet television company.

The risk is that profitability will be eroded as Alibaba ventures far from its core competency. In video, Alibaba may be trying to duplicate the success of Amazon.com(AMZN), turning a platform for buying physical goods into a media- streaming service. But until the company offers more details, investors can't know for certain.

The biggest unknown is what valuation Alibaba will seek, and what investors will be willing to pay after the recent tech selloff, which has hit established e-commerce names such as Amazon(AMZN) and eBay(EBAY) along with highflying social networks and Chinese Internet plays.

Analysts at Macquarie said in a note Tuesday that Alibaba could be worth $160 to $180 billion, or 45 to 51 times 2013 earnings. To justify multiples like that, the company will have to show that it can keep growing its top line at a blistering pace, and stay highly profitable, for years to come. Over to you, Jack.

Write to Aaron Back at [e-mail]

-Aaron Back; 415-439-6400; [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires


(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-16-140746ET
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[EZ2]

Yahoo's growth anemic as turnaround chugs along

REUTERS 4:17 PM ET 04/15/14

Symbol Last Price Change
YHOO 34.21 0 (0%)
QUOTES AS OF 04:00:00 PM ET 04/15/2014

By Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc(YHOO) barely managed to expand its core advertising business in the first quarter despite Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's two-year effort to revive growth at the Internet pioneer.

But its shares jumped 8 percent on strong results from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the Chinese e-commerce company in which it owns a 24 percent stake, ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering.

Yahoo (YHOO) is trying to revitalize its business under Mayer, who took the reins about two years ago. The former Google Inc executive revamped many of Yahoo's(YHOO) Web products but its ad sales business continues to struggle, while rivals such as Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc post strong revenue growth.

Revenue from display ads, which account for roughly 40 percent of Yahoo's(YHOO) overall sales, increased just 2 percent year-on-year to $453 million, excluding partner fees. That meager growth follows several consecutive quarters of decline in the display ad business.

Shares of Yahoo(YHOO) were up at $36.90 in afterhours trading.

"It's really Alibaba driving things," said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter. Yahoo's(YHOO) core business improved slightly in the first quarter, but "really the story here is Alibaba and the somewhat unexpected re-acceleration" of its revenue growth.

The Chinese company's revenue increased 66 percent to $3.06 billion in the fourth quarter, according to slides that Yahoo(YHOO) posted on its investor relations website on Tuesday, faster than the 51 percent growth in Alibaba's third quarter.

Yahoo (YHOO) reports the Chinese company's financial results one quarter later than its own.

Alibaba, valued at more than $140 billion, is expected to go public later this year in the United States in the largest IPO since Facebook Inc's debut in 2012.

Yahoo's (YHOO) revenue, excluding fees paid to partner websites, came to $1.087 billion in the first quarter, up from $1.074 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S had expected adjusted revenue of $1.077 billion.

It had net income of $311.6 million, or 29 cents a share, in the first quarter. It earned 38 cents a share excluding certain items.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Alden Bentley and Richard Chang)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Check for restrictions at: about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp