(CNNMoney.com) -- Shares of Google Inc. rose in after-hours trading Thursday after the Internet search company said its first-quarter profit climbed 8.9% and topped Wall Street's forecast, amid a tough advertising environment.
Net income for the three months ended March 31 totaled $1.42 billion, or $4.49 per share, compared with $1.31 billion, or $4.12 per share, a year ago.
Results included charges of 67 cents per share for special items. Without the charges, earnings were $5.16 per share for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.
A consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who typically exclude one-time items from their estimates, predicted $4.93 per share.
Sales rose almost 6% to $5.51 billion from $5.19 billion last year. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, sales totaled $4.07 billion, which missed analysts' forecast of $4.08 billion.
In the previous earnings period, Google posted its first-ever drop in quarterly profit.
Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) stock was trading almost 1% higher to $392.24 in after-hours action Thursday after rising as high as 5.7% following the earnings release.
"It's not an expensive stock, and stocks are rallying even on bad news," said Jeff Rath, analyst at Canaccord Adams. "There's a building belief that the worst is behind us."
January and February were difficult months for Web search, but the trends started to improve in March and may be stabilizing, Rath said.
'Feeling the impact'
"Despite the tough economic climate, we had a good quarter," chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a conference call. "But no company is recession-proof, and Google is definitely feeling the impact."
Consumers are still searching on Google, but they're buying less, Schmidt said. "The shift to online gives us an advantage, so we're well-placed for the recovery when it occurs," he said.
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