SAN FRANCISCO —  Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), the world's largest Internet media company, Tuesday said quarterly net profit surged, aided by a gain on a Chinese investment, but fell shy of Wall Street's average forecast.

Net income for the fourth quarter rose to $683 million, or 46 cents per diluted share, from $373 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier, when it was aided by an investment gain. The most recent quarter included a big investment gain. Gross revenue rose 39 percent to $1.50 billion.

Excluding one-time items tied to its Chinese business, the company reported adjusted net income of $247 million, or 16 cents per diluted share, in the latest quarter.

The prior year included a gain of $185 million, or 13 cents a share, on the sale of an early stake in Google Inc (GOOG). Excluding the gain, year-ago net income was $197 million, or 13 cents per share.

Excluding one-time items, the Wall Street consensus estimate was 17 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates, within a range of 15 cents to 20 cents. Including items, analysts, on average, predicted 22 cents a share.

Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, rose 36 percent to $1.07 billion from $785 million.

Analysts expected consensus revenue, excluding traffic acquisition, to grow nearly 37 percent to $1.07 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. Traffic acquisition refers to revenue paid out to affiliated Web sites that run Yahoo advertising on their own sites.