Google blows past estimates, reports healthy earnings

When Google went public a few years ago, it became apparent that eventually the company would suffer from rumors and so-called analyst estimates which could have an impact on its stock.

But as it has happened so far, the Mountain View-based company has kept coming back with pretty good expectations and well above average earnings that have kept everybody happy. For the past few weeks, rumors of declining click-through rates for paid listings led to some tumbling until today that Google disclosed first quarter results topping Wall Street estimates.

The search engine giant reported 1Q revenues of $5.19 billion, a 42% year over year increase, and a 7% increase over fourth quarter 2007 revenues. Net income was estimated at $1.31 billion compared to $1.21 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. Concerns regarding click-through rates were also diminished after the official report indicated that clicks for the quarter actually increased ~20% year over year, despite of new measures Google has taken lately to decrease the amount of fraudulent clicks and unintentional clicks made on its text-based ads.