Google Inc's already soaring stock price rocketed even higher on Thursday after reporting strong growth in its first quarter as a public company, prompting skeptics again to caution against Googlemania getting out of control.
Google, the Internet search engine provider, reported that its profit and revenue more than doubled in the first quarter after its initial public offering. The results led its shares, which had closed up US$8.89, or 6.33 percent at US$149.38, to continue skyward, jumping another 8.25 percent, to US$161.70, in after-hours trading. The price was nearly double the initial offering of US$85 a share in mid-August.
Google reported third-quarter net income of US$52 million, or US$0.19 a share, compared with US$20.4 million, or US$0.08 a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased 105 percent, to US$805.9 million, from US$393.9 million.
Without a series of one-time charges -- like the inclusion of a noncash charge of US$201 million related to a patent dispute with Yahoo -- the company said it would have had earnings of US$0.70 a share. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had expected US$0.56 a share.
Its earnings followed a similar announcement by its close rival Yahoo, which on Oct. 13 reported that it had tripled its profit from the previous year. Strong reports from the two companies, as well as the strength of reports by other shopping sites like Amazon and Ebay, suggested a continuing shift in commerce toward the more focused online commerce and away from traditional advertising and commerce.
But several analysts suggested that the market reaction was not justified by the company's growth.
"Investors who pay up for Google here have to share their optimism for at least another five years, a tough pill to swallow in any market," said Andy Kessler, an independent financial analyst based in Silicon Valley.
Other analysts said that Google had outperformed expectations and that they thought that it was increasing its share of revenue and its share of the search market relative to the rest of the online industry.
"It was a strong quarter for everyone, but Google's results were actually much stronger," said James Friedland, a financial analyst at SG Cowen, an investment firm.
In an hour-long conference call with financial analysts, the idiosyncratic Google also made an effort to reaffirm that it will not be a typical company in reporting results and in offering guidance to the analysts.
"We told potential investors from the start that Google is a very unusual company in many ways," the chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said. Google is based in Mountain View, California.
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