NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Google falls short of expectations despite record Q4 results
Google Inc.’s Q4 earnings missed market expectations Thursday with the tech giant posting Q4 revenue of $18.1 billion ($14.48 billion minus traffic acquisitions costs), or $6.88 per share, against a prediction of $7.08 per share.
Despite missing Wall Street predictions, the figures were a record high for Google, with revenue up 15 percent for the same quarter in 2013. Google’s full year revenue for 2014 was $66 billion, up 19 percent year on year.
Google sites generated revenues of $12.43 billion, 69 percent of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2014, an 18 percent increase over Q4 2013. Partner sites generated revenues of $3.72 billion in Q4, up 6 percent over the the same quarter in 2013. There was an increase over fourth quarter 2013 network revenues of $3.52 billion.
Other revenues (the non-advertising business) came in at $1.95 billion for the quarter, up 19 percent over Q4 2013.
Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $10.23 billion representing 56 percent of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2014, the same as Q4 2013. Revenue from the United Kingdom came in at $1.66 billion for the fourth quarter, a decline of one percentage point to 9 percent of total revenues compared to Q4 2013.
In Google’s core advertising vertical, paid clicks increased 14 percent overall in the fourth quarter of 2013 and was up 11 percent over the third quarter of 2014. Paid clicks on Google-owned property were up 25 percent over the same quarter of 2013. Interestingly network paid clicks, ads served by AdSense for Search, AdSense for Content, and AdMob decreased 11 percent over the fourth quarter of 2013, and 7 percent over the third quarter of 2014.
The price of ads continues to drop relative to excess inventory, with the average cost-per-click decreasing 3 percent compared to Q4 2013. Cost-per-click on Google sites decreased 8 percent compared to Q4 2013, but saw an increase of 6 percent quarter on quater on network sites.
Traffic acquisition costs continue to rise, up to $3.62 billion in Q4 of 2014 compared to $3.31 billion Q4 2013.
Operating costs excluding traffic acquisition, consisting primarily of data center operational expenses, content acquisition costs, revenue share payments to mobile carriers and original equipment manufacturers, and hardware inventory costs, increased to $3.30 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $2.94 billion Q4 2013.
Despite missing market expectations the market didn’t punish Google: the stock price was up $7.22 (1.41 percent) in after hours trading.
photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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