After missing earning projections last quarter, Google stormed back and posted Q1 earnings that were substantially higher than Wall Street’s consensus estimates. The news shot shares of Google up more than 7 percent in extended-hours trading.
Revenue for Google was $2.25 billion, up 79 percent from a year earlier. Excluding traffic acquisition costs (or TAC) that the company shares with advertising partners (that’s us!), Google reported sales of $1.53 billion, ahead of the $1.44 billion that Wall Street analysts were expecting. Earnings came in at $2.29 a share, excluding the cost of stock-based compensation and some other charges. That was well ahead of the $1.98 per share that analysts had forecast for the company on this basis.
Google ended the first quarter with about $8.4 billion in cash but this figure does not include the $2.1 billion that the company raised from a secondary offering of stock earlier this month. One thing for sure, Google will have no problem paying us!
Google close today at $412 per share. You can read the rest of the financial numbers here.
