MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Google Inc. (GOOG) Thursday reported a rise in fourth-quarter profit with 25 percent growth in gross revenues. Nevertheless, adjusted earnings and revenues for the quarter came in well short of Street estimates. Google shares lost over 8 percent in extended trade following the announcement of results. Google's net income for the fourth quarter rose to $2.71 billion or $8.22 per share from $2.54 billion or $7.81 per share in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $3.13 billion or $9.50 per share from $2.85 billion or $8.75 per share last year. On average, 34 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $10.49 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Adjusted earnings exclude expenses related to stock-based compensation, which were $536 million in the quarter, compared with $396 million last year. Google reported revenues of $10.58 billion for the quarter, representing a 25 percent increase over year-ago revenues of $8.44 billion. Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google's partners, increased to $2.45 billion from $2.07 billion last year. The costs were 24 percent of advertising revenues for the quarter, compared with 25 percent last year. Excluding Traffic acquisition costs, revenues for the quarter totaled $8.13 billion, compared with $6.37 billion last year. Thirty Street analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $8.41 billion. Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $5.60 billion, representing 53 percent of total revenues, compared to 52 percent last year. Google Sites revenues, making up 69 percent of revenues, increased 29 percent from last year. Partner site revenues, making up 27 percent of revenues, increased 15 percent. Aggregate paid clicks, from Google and partner sites, increased about 34 percent from last year. Cost-Per-Click for the quarter decreased about 8 percent from last year. Cost-Per-Click had increased 8 percent in the first quarter, increased 12 percent in the second quarter, and had increased 5 percent in the third quarter. The CPC for any ad is determined by the advertiser. Other cost of revenues increased to 32 percent of revenues from 30 percent last year. Operating income for the quarter declined to 33 percent of revenues from 35 percent of revenues in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted operating income also declined two percentage points to 38 percent. Interest and Other Income was an expense of $18 million for the quarter, compared to income of $160 million last year. Google's full-year net income rose to $9.737 billion or $29.76 per share from $8.505 billion or $26.31 per share for fiscal year 2010. Full-year gross revenues grew to $37.9 billion from $29.3 billion last year. Larry Page, CEO, said,' Full year revenue was up 29%, and our quarterly revenue blew past the $10 billion mark for the first time. I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail, and Google+, which now has 90 million users globally - well over double what I announced just three months ago.' In the fourth quarter, capital expenditures were $951 million, the majority of which was related to IT infrastructure investments, including data centers, servers, and networking equipment. Going forward, the company expects to continue to make significant capital expenditures. As of December 31, 2011, cash, cash equivalents, and short-term marketable securities were $44.6 billion.
GOOG closed Thursday's regular trading at $639.57, up $6.66 or 1.05%, on the Nasdaq. In after-hours, the stock lost $56.79 or 8.88%. Over the past year, the share traded in a range of $473.02 - $642.96.
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