Google had earnings per share of $12.01 in the fourth quarter of 2013 on revenue of $16.86 billion, up 17 percent from the same time last year.
Wall Street was expecting earnings per share of $12.26 on revenue of $16.75 billion.
Even so, the stock is up just slightly in after-hours trading.
As for net revenue — which accounts for the cost of traffic acquisition — analysts expected around $13.4 billion. Google’s actual net revenue was $13.55 billion.
So what’s going on here? It may be that the ad business is less profitable than analysts expected, or it may be increased costs.
Traffic acquisition costs were $3.31 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, up from $3.08 billion in 2012, but about the same as a percentage of advertising revenue.
Google also had a bunch of other increased expenses in the quarter. Costs including manufacturing and data center costs as well as operating expenses were up, though proportionally consistent with 2012.
We’ll learn more on the company earnings call shortly.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?
Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:
First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.
Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.
So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)
If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.
Yes, I'll give $5/month
Yes, I'll give $5/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and
Google Pay. You can also contribute via