Google posts record quarter, but lower than expected

Revenue of $10.58 billion isn’t too shabby is it? That’s the total revenue for Google for the 4th quarter 2011, but Wall Street doesn’t think it’s so great. It was a record quarter for Google, but analysts expected more as well as a rocky year with all the antitrust investigations and litigation involving Android, competition from Facebook, and the acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

Google reported a net income of $2.71 billion in the 4th quarter or $8.22 a share. If you take out the cost of stock options and related tax benefits, it came in at $9.50 per share. That’s up from $8.75 a year ago, but Wall Street expected $10.49 a share.

Google closed at $639.57 at the end of the trading day, but shares are currently down close to 10% after these announcements.

Larry Page had this to say:

“Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year. I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail and Google Plus, which now has 90 million users globally — well over double what I announced just three months ago.”

90 million Google Plus user totals seems pretty good, but unfortunately Facebook is kicking ass with nearly 10 times that, so analysts aren’t impressed.

Page also announced that over 250 million devices have been activated to date, which is up 50 million from November and over 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the Android Market.

As to the Motorola deal, analysts aren’t too excited  because it will have a negative impact on Google’s income statement. That is, of course, if the deal is approved by the Feds.

Is it all doom and gloom for Google? Absolutely not, companies like Google continue to grow at record speeds, but unfortunately the public and analysts have different view points. Stock prices can’t always go up, they have to correct. Google is solid and will continue to grow and Android will continue to flourish. I’m sure more information will come out of the conference call so stay tuned.

[via nytimes]

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Categorized as Android News, Google News

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