Google Inc.’s share price down, posts upbeat second-quarter sales due to increasing ad demand

Google Inc. made an official statement yesterday, posting its sales over the second financial quarter that topped analysts forecasts as the tech giant managed to sell more advertising over the period.

The Chief Investment Officer of Centre Asset Management, which is one of the shareholders of Google – Mr. James Abate commented on the companys performance in an interview for the Wall Street Journal: “The quarter was very good, with top-line growth of 22% and even more importantly it was profitable growth.”

According to the companys statement, Google Inc.s revenue excluding sales to partners over the second quarter amounted to 12.7 billion dollars. This result topped the average projection of analysts of 12.3 billion dollars. The search giant reported that its total revenue over the period increased by 22% from 13.1 billion over the second three months a year ago and reached 16 billion dollars in Q2. The result surpassed the revenue forecast of analysts, who projected an estimate of 15.6 billion dollars.

Google also revealed that its net income over the second quarter, excluding its Motorola unit amounted to 3.5 billion dollars, which makes 5.09 dollars per share. This is a 26% increase compared to the companys net income reported for the same period a year ago.

Mr. Larry Page, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc. has been recently focused on adding new features in the company video, mobile and Web services in order to increase user traffic and make Google more attractive to marketers. These steps have been undertaken by Mr. Page due to his goal of consolidating the core ad business of Google and make it stronger.

The announcement of the second-quarter results of the company comes at a time when Google Inc. has just revealed that its top business executive Mr. Nikesh Arora is to depart from the company in order to occupy the position of a vice-chairman of SoftBank. The predecessor of Mr. Arora – Mr. Omid Kordestani is to temporarily return at the position.

Google Inc. was 1.66% down to close at 580.82 dollars per share yesterday, marking a one-year change of +26.34%. According to the information published on CNN Money, the 42 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Google Inc. have a median target of 665.00, with a high estimate of 742.00 and a low estimate of 525.00. The median estimate represents a +14.49% increase from the last price of 580.82.