Yandex's (YNDX) Q4 Earnings Miss, Revenues Beat Estimates
Zacks Investment Research | Feb 18, 2019 08:36PM ET
Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ:YNDX) reported fourth-quarter 2018 adjusted earnings of 30 cents (RUB 18.67) per share missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2 cents. However, it surged from the year-ago quarter’s figure of RUB 10.61 per share.
Revenues of $559.1 million (RUB 38.8 billion) surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $534 million. The figure exhibited year-over-year growth of 39% in ruble terms.
The top-line growth was driven by accelerating advertisement revenues and its strong position in Russian search market. Further, well-performing Taxi, Classifieds, Media Services and Experiments segments of the company drove results.
Additionally, the company witnessed growth of 10% in its paid clicks during the reported quarter.
However, the deconsolidation effect of Yandex.Market remained an overhang throughout the fourth quarter. Excluding this impact, the revenues would have reflected growth of 46% on a year-over-year basis.
Nevertheless, shares of Yandex have lost 26.9% over a year against the Yandex N.V. Quote
Operating Details
In fourth-quarter 2018, adjusted net income margin was 17.9%, contracting 90 bps from the year-ago quarter.
Per the company, its operating margin came in 19.2% in the fourth quarter, expanding 190 bps from the year-ago quarter.
Further, Adjusted EBITDA margin was 32.9%, contracting 160 bps year over year. This can be attributable to deconsolidation of Yandex.Market, increasing investment in Yandex.Drive and Yandex.Cloud, sale of hardware devices and growing marketing and advertisement costs.
Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue was 80.8%, contracting 190 bps from the year-ago quarter.
The company’s total traffic acquisition cost (TAC) came in RUB 6.2 billion, surging 29% on a year-over-year basis.
Balance Sheet & Cash Flows
As of Dec 31, 2018, cash and cash equivalents were $990.3 million, up from $753 million as of Sep 30, 2018.
Accounts Receivables totaled $209.7 million, increasing from $184.8 million in the previous quarter.
For the fourth quarter, cash flow from operations was $123.9 million which surged from the previous-quarter figure of $115.8 million.
Guidance
For 2019, Yandex anticipates total revenues to grow within a range of 28-32% in ruble terms from 2018.
The company expects ruble-based revenue from Search and Portal segment to grow in the range of 18-20% from 2018.
Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Yandex carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are Jabil (NYSE:JBL) , Square (NYSE:SQ) and Fitbit (NYSE:FIT) . While Jabil sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Square and Fitbit carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see Zacks Investment Research
Get The News You Want