Shares of Yahoo! Inc. rose Tuesday as the company said it will return about $3 billion to investors after completing the sale of half of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

The U.S. Internet company plans to return $3 billion to investors after returning $646 million in recent months, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said in a statement. In late Nasdaq trading, Yahoo shares were up 1.2 percent at $15.98.

Alibaba Group said earlier in the day that it completed a repurchase of a stake in itself that was held by Yahoo, through transactions valued at $7.6 billion.

Alibaba bought back about half of Yahoo’s 40 percent stake for about $7.1 billion, which includes $6.3 billion in cash and $800 million in preference shares in Alibaba Group. It also paid Yahoo $550 million in cash in connection with changes in terms of a technology and intellectual-property licensing agreement.

Yahoo said its net cash proceeds total about $4.3 billion.