Google stock drives past $1,000-mark as revenue zooms
21 Oct 2013
Google Inc shares jumped past the $1,000-mark on Friday, hitting an all-time high of $1,011.41 and up 14 per cent from the previous close, boosting its market value by about $40 billion, after the company reported a 23-per cent jump in its quarterly revenue. (See: Google beats Wall Street expectations)
Shares of the world's top search company has more than doubled over the past one year, helped by rising revenues from Android, which has emerged as the most-sold mobile software in the first quarter of 2013 (See: Google's Android tops tablet OS market share in Q1).
Shares of other technology firms such as Facebook and LinkedIn also hit record highs on Friday, closing at $54.22 (doubling since August) and $250.21 (doubling since February) respectively as investors lapped up technology stocks amidst a fresh wave of dotcom boom.
Chinese search engine Baidu, which trades on Nasdaq, also hit a record $165.91, nearly doubling since July.
The spike in share prices boosted Google's market cap by more than $40 billion to $337.97 billion. The search giant is now the third most valuable company in the United States after Apple Inc (market cap of $462.33 billion) and Exxon Mobil Corp (market cap of $384.61 billion).
Google's market capitalisation is now above that of Microsoft Corp and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Investors are now betting on online advertisements, which received a boost with the rise of social media and the rising popularity of smart phones.
Google, whose Android is the world's most-used mobile software and YouTube is the most popular video-streaming service, on Thursday reported a 23-per cent jump in net revenue from its internet business.
Advertising volume soared 26 per cent - the highest rate of growth in the past year, despite a more than 8 per cent slide in ad prices.
While advertising prices are going down, these are more than offset by increases in the number of users as smart phones become as common as PCs as a way of accessing the internet.
Share prices of top technology firms (Friday,18 October)
| Company | Stock price | Change | Change% | Market Cap | P/E | Ann. Revenue | Ann. Net Income |
| Google Inc | 1,011.41 | +122.61 | 13.80 | 337.97B | 29.05 | 50,175.00 | 10,788.00 |
| Apple Inc. | 508.89 | +4.39 | 0.87 | 462.33B | 12.71 | 156,508.00 | 41,733.00 |
| Amazon.com, Inc | 328.93 | +18.16 | 5.84 | 150.28B | - | 61,093.00 | -39.00 |
| IBM Corp | 173.78 | -1.05 | -0.60 | 190.36B | 12.06 | 104,507.00 | 16,604.00 |
| Baidu Inc (ADR) | 165.91 | +12.08 | 7.85 | 58.03B | 33.74 | 3,657.71 | 1,714.57 |
| SAP AG (ADR) | 73.75 | +0.86 | 1.18 | 87.92B | 21.73 | 22,167.13 | 3,857.35 |
| Facebook Inc | 54.22 | +2.01 | 3.85 | 132.04B | 204.55 | 5,089.00 | 32.00 |
| Microsoft Corp | 34.96 | +0.04 | 0.11 | 292.29B | 13.52 | 77,849.00 | 21,863.00 |
| Yahoo! Inc. | 33.43 | +0.69 | 2.09 | 35.61B | 28.53 | 4,986.57 | 3,945.4 |
| Oracle Corp | 32.90 | +0.03 | 0.09 | 152.85B | 14.18 | 37,180.00 | 10,925.00 |
| Intel Corporation | 23.88 | -0.05 | -0.19 | 118.92B | 12.89 | 53,341.00 | 11,005.00 |
| Hewlett-Packard Co | 23.48 | +0.09 | 0.41 | 45.12B | - | 120,357.00 | -12,650.00 |
| Cisco Systems | 22.96 | +0.18 | 0.79 | 123.63B | 12.35 | 48,607.00 | 9,983.00 |
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