Yahoo! reported Tuesday that net profit soared more than 244 percent in the third quarter, easily surpassing the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

The Sunnyvale, California-based Internet firm said revenue declined 12 percent to 1.57 billion dollars in the quarter which ended on September 30.

But net profit more than tripled to 186 million dollars, or 13 cents per share, from 54 million dollars, or four cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Analysts had been expecting seven cents per share for the quarter and revenue of 1.12 billion dollars.

"With revenue coming in above our guidance and flat sequentially, we had a solid third quarter that signals our major businesses have stabilized," Yahoo! chief executive officer Carol Bartz said in a statement.

The better-than-expected performance was chalked up in large part to aggressive cost-cutting measures implemented by Bartz since being named in January to replace Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang as chief executive.

"In the third quarter we saw strength in key areas of our business," Yahoo! chief financial officer Tim Morse said.

"Our efforts to reposition Yahoo! are still in the early stages, but we're confident that our investments in the business will enable us to capitalize on growth opportunities as the economy recovers," he said.

Yahoo!'s share price gained 3.31 percent to 17.77 dollars in after-hours electronic trading in New York.