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The investment-management vestige of the old Yahoo!, now known as Altaba (NASDAQ: AABA), just reported its results for the first quarter of 2018. As a reminder, all of Yahoo!'s actual operations now belong under the Verizon umbrella, leaving Altaba to manage a portfolio of investments and intellectual property rights that Verizon didn't want to include in its $4.5 billion buyout offer.
Chiefly, Altaba owns 14.7% of China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and a 35% stake in former subsidiary Yahoo Japan, an online search and marketing service in the land of the rising sun. How have these core investments treated Altaba since February's fourth-quarter update?
Let's have a look.
By the numbers
| Investment | Fair Value as of March 31, 2018 | Fair Value as of December 31, 2017 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba | $70.4 billion | $66.1 billion | 6.5% |
| Yahoo Japan | $9.4 billion | $9.3 billion | 1% |
| Total Altaba Investments | $87.9 billion | $81.1 billion | 8.4% |
Data source: Altaba SEC filings.
What the numbers mean
80% of Altaba's total investment portfolio consists of Alibaba shares, up from 78% at the end of 2017, and that has been a solid investment recently. Alibaba's stock has gained 23% since Altaba was formed, and Altaba shares followed along with a 26% gain. Over the same period, Yahoo Japan's stock fell 11% lower while the S&P 500 market barometer gained 11%.
Beyond the two flagship holdings, Altaba holds $3.1 billion of corporate bonds, $1.1 billion in certificates of deposit, and another $2.2 billion in an assortment of smaller investments. The Excalibur IP operation, which holds the licensing rights to Yahoo!'s portfolio of technology patents, did not move over to Verizon and accounts for $640 million of Altaba's asset value today.
The company continues to reshape this part of its portfolio. The bond balance is up from from $2.8 billion at the end of December, reversing a rash of bond sales during the fourth quarter. The portfolio of certificates of deposit rose by a rounding error over the last three months, and other investments have decreased from $1.4 billion three months earlier.
Altaba still hasn't bought or sold a single share of Alibaba or Yahoo! Japan since breaking free from the Yahoo/Verizon merger.
Image source: Getty Images.
Other moves
Altaba's board of directors authorized a new share buyback program in February, replacing an exhausted $5 billion policy with another $5 billion buyback deal. Through April 20, Altaba had used the new program to retire 7 million shares in open market trades totaling roughly $1.1 billion, leaving another $3.9 billion of autorized share repurchases left to perform.