Search engine giant Google Inc. (GOOG) is expected to announce fourth-quarter results after the market closes Thursday. On average, 36 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn $6.45 per share for the period, with estimates ranging between $6.03 and $6.99 per share. Revenues are estimated to be $4.90 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
The company has several products ranging from the namesake search engine to Gmail email service and chat platform Google Talk to social networking site Orkut, to name a few. Despite the economic downturn, the company's performance in the past few quarters was much better than that of its peers.
Latest data published by Internet data tracking firm comScore Inc. (SCOR) showed that Google continued to lead the U.S. core web search rankings in December 2009. Google sites accounted for 9.7 billion searches in December, followed by Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) sites with 2.5 billion searches, and Microsoft (MSFT) sites with 1.6 billion searches. Google sites accounted for 65.7% search market share in December, up from 65.6% the previous month.
On January 4, FBR Capital Markets reiterated its "Outperform" rating on Google, saying the company is gaining as search advertising is strengthening. Analyst Heath Terry continues to believe that Google is the best positioned of the large-cap Internet companies, especially because the advertising environment continues to improve and overall online and mobile consumer activity increases.
FBR raised its fourth-quarter pro forma earnings per share estimates on the stock to $6.65 from $6.38, and revenue estimate to $4.928 billion from $4.683 billion. The brokerage also revised its price target for Google to $810 from $680.
For the third quarter, Google reported GAAP net income of $1.64 billion or $5.13 per share, up from $1.29 billion or $4.06 per share in the prior-year quarter. Third-quarter gross revenues increased 7% to $5.94 billion from $5.54 billion in the same quarter of last year. Excluding Traffic Acquisition Costs, revenues for the quarter rose 8% to $4.38 billion from $4.04 billion a year earlier. Total advertising revenues rose 7.7% to $5.76 billion.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, the company's GAAP net income was $382.44 million or $1.21 per share and total revenues were $5.70 billion.
Google recently hit the headlines around the world, when it said the company may end its operations in China, the world's third-largest economy that has the world's largest Internet market. Although Google did not specifically blame the Chinese government, it said accounts of Gmail users advocating for human rights in China were routinely accessed by third parties.
Google, which had agreed to censor some results when it was launched in China in 2006, said it is "no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn." ''...over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,'' Google said last week.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ginger Fine Jade said later that the country's Internet was open, but stressed that "the internet enterprise must develop the service legally in China."
When the company announces results later in the day, the investors will be keen to know what Google has to say about the future of its operations in China.
During the quarter, Google agreed to acquire mobile display and technology provider, AdMob, for $750 million in stock. The deal is expected to enhance Google's existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, besides providing advertisers and publishers more choice.
Meanwhile, Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy have sought the intervention of the Federal Trade Commission to stop Google from acquiring AdMob on anti-trust concerns.
Among recent events, it was reported that Google last month applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission through its Google Energy LLC subsidiary to become an electricity marketer. The move is expected to help the company manage supplies for its own operations.
For the full year, Wall Street expects Google to report earnings of $22.83 per share, on revenues of $17.43 billion. In 2008, the company reported GAAP net income of $4.23 billion or $13.31 per share on revenues of $21.795 billion.
Among peers, Yahoo is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results after the market closes on January 26. Analysts look for earnings of $0.11 per share on revenues of $1.23 billion.
GOOG closed Wednesday's regular trade at $580.41, down $7.21 or 1.23%, on 3.25 million shares. For the past year, the stock traded in the range of $288.35-$629.51.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.