Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) proved yet again that Wall Street analysts have no idea on how to forecast the company's quarterly results.
Net income was $1.03 billion, or $3.29 per share compared with $372.2 million, or $1.22, a year earlier. Revenue was $3.2 billion versus $1.9 billion. For what's worth, analysts expected profit of $2.92 on revenue of $2.19 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Shares of the No. 1 search engine rose in after-hours trading.
In the earnings release, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt didn't waste any time touting the company's latest achievements.
"Our impressive performance in the fourth quarter demonstrates the continuing strength of our business model across Google properties and those of our partners," he said. "Our growing organization allows us to deliver ever increasing amounts of information and content to our users both through investments in search and ads as well as through strategic partnerships."
Blogging Stocks readers weren't surprised by these results; out of 369 votes in our readers poll, 59% were for Google to beat expectations
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