Yandex +8.1% on EPS strength, better-than-feared guidance
- Yandex (NASDAQ:YNDX) is guiding for 15% Y/Y Q1 ruble-based revenue growth, below a 16.9% consensus but better than feared given Russia's macro woes.
- Q4 revenue (RUR14.7B, or $260.7M) was up 21% Y/Y on a ruble basis, but down 29% from the year-ago level (RUR12.1B, or $369.3M) on a dollar basis. However, EPS (RUR23.44, or $0.42) rose from year-ago levels (RUR10.30, or $0.31) on both a ruble and dollar basis.
- On a ruble basis, text ad sales on Yandex sites (search ad-driven) rose 24% Y/Y to RUR8.01B, a slowdown from Q3's 33%. Ad network text ad sales +16% to RUR2.83B; display ad sales on Yandex sites -2% to RUR1.01B (a recent weak spot); ad network display sales +34% to RUR137M.
- Total ruble-based revenue growth fell to 21% from Q3's 28%. Paid clicks +18%; ad prices +3%.
- Boosting EPS: Traffic acquisition costs fell to 21.1% of revenue from 23.4% a year ago. SG&A spend fell to 15.7% of revenue from 16.4%, but R&D rose to 18.2% from 13.7%. $18.9M was spent on buybacks.
- Search queries rose a modest 9% Y/Y. LiveInternet estimates Yandex had a 59.7% Q4 search share, down from 60.3% in Q3 and 61.9% a year ago.
- Yandex's shares, hit hard in recent months by the ruble and crude oil's plunge, have risen to $17.99 in premarket trading.
- Q4 results, PR
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