Yahoo on Tuesday posted earnings and sales results in its first quarter which topped analysts' expectations.

In the period ending on March 31, Yahoo reported net earnings of 286 million U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 28 percent from 223 million dollars in the year-ago quarter.

Earnings excluding some items was 24 cents per share, up from 17 cents per share in the same period a year earlier.

The Internet company said its revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs passed on to partner websites, was 1.08 billion dollars in the quarter, up about 1 percent year-on-year.

According to Thomson Reuters, analysts had expected Yahoo to earn 17 cents per share excluding items on revenue of 1.06 billion dollars.

Yahoo's results were closely watched by the market as it was the first quarter the company was run under new leadership.

Scott Thompson, former president of online payment service PayPal, was appointed Yahoo's chief executive officer (CEO) in early January.

Since then, Thompson has announced a series of measures to reshape the company, including the decision to cut about 2,000 jobs earlier this month.

"In the first quarter, Yahoo's results came in at the high end of our guidance range and beat consensus on revenue and profits," Thompson on Tuesday said in a statement while releasing the earnings results.

"We also made changes to resize the organization and establish a new leadership structure to quickly deliver the best user and advertiser experiences at scale," he added.

Yahoo's shares rose about 2 percent in after-hours trading following the announcement of the earnings results.

 VietNamNet/Xinhuanet