Google’s financial results didn’t quite square up with analyst expectations today. The company reported that it brought in $16.52 billion in revenue this past quarter, up 20 percent from the same period a year ago. That still missed expectations from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who projected the Mountain View-based company would bring in $16.57 billion.
The company’s earnings numbers were even worse, coming in at $6.35 a share. That’s up from $5.63 in the year-ago quarter, but still almost 20 cents a share below expectations. The company’s net income for the quarter was $4.37 billion, up from $3.82 billion during the same period a year ago.
The earnings miss probably has to do with the company’s increased spending: operating expenses were equal to 37 percent of the company’s revenue in Q3 compared to 33 percent a year ago. Research and development expenses rose by 46 percent year-over-year to $2.66 billion.
The company is becoming slightly less reliant on ads, with advertising making up 89 percent of its revenue this quarter, compared to 91 percent in the year-ago quarter. Paid clicks rose 17 percent year-over-year, which is a slowdown compared to Q2’s 25 percent growth. However, cost per click – the amount that Google gets paid every time someone clicks on an ad – is down only 2 percent year over year and roughly flat since last quarter.
That’s good news for Google, especially since mobile ads have been pushing ad prices down.
Wall Street’s immediate reaction to the news wasn’t all that happy – Google stock is down almost 3 percent in after-hours trading.
Google’s financial statements are embedded below.
