Google Exceeds Analysts Expectations with Earnings and Shares Up A lot!!!

[2021 Update] Google continues to exceed Analyst expectation and showed a strong recovery from the COVID Pandemic induced slowdown with shares touching record levels. Key Highlights

  • Google advertising revenue rose 32.3%, comprising 80.8% of companywide revenue.
  • Over the past year, Google shares (all classes) have provided a total return of 80.2%, above the S&P 500’s total return of 45.5%.
  • YouTube ad revenue grew nearly 50% year over year

Despite these increases and growth there is still downward pressure on the stock with inflation and regulatory headwinds. However for longer term investors this is a great investment given their market dominance and economic resurgence (which means more advertising dollars). YouTube is also looking to become a massive profit driver with the shift to streaming video.

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Google blew away negative market sentiment to handily beat analyst expectations. The shares were up over 10% in late market trading, boding for a strong open on Friday. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had bought Google last year near its peak at $700 and saw it fall to $400 a month ago. Not a nice feeling, but I held on as I believed in the long term story of this company. My perseverance is starting to pay off.

Here are what some of the early news reports and analysts are saying

  • Internet search leader Google Inc. posted a first-quarter profit that soundly beat Wall Street’s estimates, driven by strong global sales. Excluding one-time charges, Google said it earned $1.54 billion, or $4.84 per share, beating estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who typically exclude one-time items from their estimates, of $4.52 cents per share. [WSJ]
  • Our ongoing innovation in search, ads, and apps helped drive healthy growth globally across our product lines, yielding another strong quarter,” Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a prepared release.
  • “It’s a good time to be a Google bull. The boys delivered. They posted very strong results and the opportunities for Google remain tremendous internationally,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst with Canaccord Adams. “The thing about Google is it’s very direct marketing focused. They deliver a clear return on spend to the clients. It shows that as long as the virtuous spread is intact, advertisers will be allocating Google spend to the Google platforms.” [CNBC]
  • International revenue was $2.65 billion, or 51 percent of total revenue. The lower dollar helped drive interntational revenue growth. Google generated cash flow of $1.78 billion in the first quarter, up from $1.69 billion in the fourth quarter.

Google’s outlook also remained relatively bullish so hopefully the share price will continue to appreciate. A good end to the day. What are your thoughts – should I hold on or sell?

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