RBC analyst Mark Mahaney has put together a cheat-sheet (via re/code) to help make sense of Google’s earnings call, due later today.
The tl;dr version is that gross revenues above $15.65B will be viewed by the market as positive, below $15.55B seen as negative and anything between the two business as usual. The market consensus is for a neutral announcement at around $15.61B and earnings per share of $6.25 – ad growth offset by lower revenues due to more mobile ads, which typically cost less … Expand Expanding Close
While the market response to Google’s quarterly earnings seems to have been lukewarm, the stock price dipping in after-hours trading and at least six analysts lowering their price targets after the company came in slightly under Wall Street expectations, Warwick Business School Associate Professor John Baptista says that the modest performance is a ‘blip’.
Bapista, who has researched the company for many years, said that although Google’s ad revenues have suffered as traffic shifts from the desktop to mobile devices (something Google wasn’t slow to address), the real growth in the future will be in the cloud, with Google ideally placed to benefit … Expand Expanding Close
Google just announced its record-breaking fourth-quarter earnings and, within minutes of reporting, the Mountain View, Calif.-based Company dropped a whopping 10 percent in early-after hours trading due to missed expectations.
Google missed analyst expectations for earnings per share during Q4 2011 and its stock immediately plummeted. Analysts predicted the company would produce $10.49 in non-GAAP earnings per share, but it only amounted to $9.50 in earnings per share (versus $8.75 in the Q4 2010).
Nevertheless, the earnings’ upswing surpassed the $9.72 billion revenue reported in Q3 2011. Google revenue hit a record $10.58 billion in Q4 2011, before deducting traffic acquisition costs, which is a 25 percent increase from $8.44 billion a year earlier. Profit also grew to $2.71 billion, compared to $2.54 billion in the Q4 2010.
“Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year. Full year revenue was up 29 percent, and our quarterly revenue blew past the $10 billion mark for the first time,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google, in a press release.
Android, Gmail, and Google+ are also growing. The new social network reached 90 million users globally, which is “well over double what I announced just three months ago,” Page explained. The CEO also announced today that Google saw 250 million Android device activations, and over 11 billion apps downloaded from the Android Market.
“I’m very excited about what we can do in 2012 – there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business,” Page said.
Although Google did not meet analysts’ expectations, the company is trumpeting its first $10 billion quarter.
The Q4 2011 financial summary and highlights are detailed below.
(Update: Over, check it out after the break) Starting at 4:30 ET, Google will be hosting their quarterly earnings call to discuss Q3 earnings with investors. We’ll be updating below when the call starts, or you can listen in here. Stay tuned!
Larry Page, Patrick Pichette, Nikesh Arora, and Susan Wojcicki will be hosting the call — starting in just a few minutes.
