Google Earnings Beat Forecast, but Revenue Is Light

Google reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations, but revenue fell slightly short. The report on Thursday sent its shares higher in extended-hours trading.

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David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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After the earnings announcement, the Internet giant's shares rose 3 percent in trading after the closing bell. (Click here to get the latest quote for Google.)

Google posted second-quarter earnings excluding items of $10.12 per share,up from $8.74 a share in the year-earlier period.

Net income was $2.79 billion, or $8.42 per share, on a consolidated basis.

Revenue rose 21 percent to $8.36 billion, from $6.92 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of $10.04 a share on $8.41 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

"It was a pretty solid report," said Kerry Rice, senior analyst at Needham & Co. "We were seeing, across the tech world, sentiment getting a little too negative."

This is the first quarter that Google is reporting its combined results with the former Motorola Mobility Holdings.

The cost per click for Google's online search ads continued to decline in the second quarter, falling 16 percent year-on-year, while the overall number of clicks on its ads increased 42 percent.

Google, the world's No. 1 search engine, closed its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola in mid-May, giving Google a foothold in the fiercely competitive smartphone hardware business, dominated by companies such as Apple and Samsung.

In the previous quarter, Google beat earnings estimates but reported revenue that was in-line with expectations. The company also announced plans to create a new class of nonvoting capital stock. Shareholders approved the split in late June.