“Great quarter”, according to Google CEO Larry Page. Enough said.
And it was great. Overall revenue was up 32% on a yearly basis, the fastest pace of growth since the second quarter of 2008.
Market reaction to the earnings report drove the stock up 13% to levels not seen since March (and that’s good news considering shares have declined following five of the past seven earnings reports).
And more solid numbers are expected: Google will command 41% of the online advertising market in the U.S. this year…up from a 39% last year, according to EMarketer (Bloomberg).
And Google+ (the company’s answer to Facebook, introduced last month) has already attracted better than 10 million users. Beyond that, Google’s Android is expected to hold its global lead this year (with 38.9% of the world’s smartphone market)…and 550,000 Android devices are activated every day.
And today, the Chrome web browser has 160 million users.
One more thing: the company added employees, increasing staff by 9.3%.
All of that said, before last week’s surge, the stock was down 11% year-to-date (after last week’s action it is just positive for the year).
The bottom line: the stock is a short/intermediate-term buy. And the stock is cheap; valuations are currently near record lows. Still, it would not be a surprise to see a bit of a correction after last weeks run-up, which left shares a little too hot.
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