A logo is pictured at Google's European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
BENGALURU/SAN
FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Google Inc rose nearly 12 percent after
the Web search leader's profit beat forecasts for the first time in the
last six quarters, boosted by strong advertising revenue and comments
by its new chief financial officer on disciplined spending.
Google
rallied to $673.50 in extended trading after closing at $601.78 on
Nasdaq. That would mark an all-time high for the stock in regular
trading if it closes at that level on Friday, adding roughly $40 billion
to its market value.
Google remains the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company after Apple Inc.
Google's
expenses rose 10 percent to $12.9 billion in the second quarter ended
June 30 from the year-ago quarter, and remained at 73 percent of
revenue, the company said on Thursday. But expenses only grew by $91
million from the first quarter, and as a percentage of revenue declined
by 1 percentage point.
"The decline in
quarter-over-quarter operating expenses reflects, in part, discipline in
expense management and, in part, lower legal expenses than in
comparable periods," CFO Ruth Porat told analysts on a conference call.Google's stock rally also appeared to reflect Porat's comments. The stock was up a little over 7 percent after the close of regular trading and steadily rose during the call as she talked about keeping expenses under control.
Advertising
revenue grew 11 percent to $16.02 billion from the year-ago quarter,
while the number of ads, or paid clicks, rose 18 percent, the company
said.
Advertisers
pay Google only if a user clicks on one of its ads. "Cost per click,"
or the average price of online ads, fell 11 percent, but was more than
offset by the increase in ad volumes.
Google's
ad revenue has been under pressure as consumers access its services on
mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, whose ad rates are
typically lower.
The company's consolidated revenue rose 11 percent to $17.73 billion in the quarter.
Net income rose 17 percent to $3.93 billion, or $4.93 for each Class A and B share, from $3.35 billion, or $4.88 per share.
Excluding one-time items, Google earned $6.99 per share.
Analysts
on average had expected a profit of $6.70 per share, and revenue of
$17.75 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru and Yasmeen Abutaleb in
San Francisco.; Editing by Simon Jennings and Richard Chang)
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