Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, October 19, 2012

Article Excerpt

GOOGLE INC., $681.79, Nasdaq symbol GOOG, reported lower-than-expected earnings this week, mainly due to higher costs following its acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility in May 2012. The company is also earning less per online ad. These factors caused the stock to fall 8%. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, earnings fell 20.3%, to $2.2 billion, or $6.53 a share. It earned $2.7 billion, or $8.33 a share, a year earlier. If you exclude costs to integrate Motorola and other unusual items, earnings per share would have fallen 7.1%, to $9.03 from $9.72. That missed the consensus estimate of $10.63 a share. Revenue in the quarter jumped 45.1%, to $14.1 billion from $9.7 billion. Motorola accounted for 59% of the increase. Paid clicks in the quarter rose 33%; Google charges advertisers every time a user clicks on one of their ads. However, the average cost advertisers paid per click fell 15%. That’s because more users are accessing the Internet with smartphones…