Google’s last two earnings releases were made even more notable than usual because of the unexpected events that preceded them, but today’s release of the company’s fiscal Q1 2013 financials was as almost as straightforward as it used to be.
For this past quarter, the search giant reported revenues of $14 billion (that’s up 31% from Q1 2012), non-GAAP earnings of $11.58 per share, and net income of $3.35 billion.
That means that this quarter, while mostly strong, was a mixed bag in terms of beating expectations. According to the slew of analysts polled by Bloomberg Businessweek, Google was expected to report earnings of $10.70 per share on $14.3 billion in revenues — Google handily came out ahead on earnings, but didn’t quite meet the Street’s revenue forecasts.
In the days and hours leading up to the earnings release, many a pundit implored shareholders to keep tabs on Google’s cost-per-click (simply put, the amount advertisers shell out every time a Google user clicks on an ad), with some noting that one metric would determine whether or not Google’s stock price would rebound from a week that saw its share of dips. Last time Google released its earnings, it pointed out a 6% year-over-year dip in its average cost-per-click — this time though, Google reported that average CPC dipped 4% from its position both in the year-ago quarter and back in Q4 2012. That’s not to say it’s all bad news on the ad front, as Google’s paid clicks grew some 20% year-over-year, or 3% over the last quarter.
Meanwhile, there hasn’t been much additional light shed on the Motorola Mobility which Google moved to acquire for $12.5 billion in August 2012. Back in Q4 the pricey hardware company generated $1.51 billion in revenue (accounting for about 11% of Google’s consolidated revenues), and that number has sunk from there. This time, Motorola Mobility only managed to rake in $1.02 billion in revenue, though that isn’t much of a surprise considering that it’s mobile phone output has been noticeably low these past few months.
That said, Google executive chairman did we he could to cheerlead for Motorola earlier this week when he revealed at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference that its next line of phones were “phenomenal.” Surely a little more detail wouldn’t have hurt (especially ahead of earnings time), but for now Google and Motorola’s hardware plans remain shrouded in secrecy. CFO Patrick Pichette noted in the last earnings call that Motorola Mobility still has 12 to 18 months of products in the pipeline that need to be worked through, though that revelation has done little to dampen rumors of an incoming Motorola X Phone.
As always, Google’s brass will weigh in on the company’s quarterly financials during an earnings call that will kick off at 4:30 PM Eastern/1:30 PM Pacific. Here’s hoping that everyone is feeling chatty, as this release has inspired more than a few questions.
This is a developing story, please refresh for updates.
Comment