JMP Securities Maintains on Yahoo In the Run-up to 1Q 2014 Earnings Release

In the run-up to the release of

Yahoo'sYHOO

1Q 2014 earnings report, which is scheduled after the close Tuesday, JMP Securities has maintained its Market Perform rating of the company. JMP Securities analyst Ronald V. Josey provided insight into the firms position on Yahoo. Although he remains "incrementally positive" on Yahoo's core business, he writes,"We believe it remains early in Yahoo!'s turnaround across its core business and we are projecting relatively flattish overall revenue growth." Looking ahead to Tuesday's earnings release, Josey highlighted six factors he will be listening for on Yahoo's earnings conference call.

Display trends and whether newer ad formats, such as Stream ads, positively impacted pricing
Search and Paid Click growth
Alibaba's 4Q14 results
The impact of newer ad products and progress across Yahoo!'s programmatic offerings
Investments and the impact on EBITDA and whether Yahoo!'s cap ex ramped
Opportunistic share repurchases

Josey concluded, "While the risk/reward from a valuation perspective appears favorable, we remain on the sidelines until we see improvements in Yahoo!'s core operations."

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