Google, in its fourth quarter earnings report, reported revenue of $18.1 billion, a figure that falls short of the expectations set by Wall Street analysts for the company.
While the $18.1 billion revenue for Google represents a 15 percent increase in revenue the company posted in the corresponding period last year, it comes up short against the analyst's revenue forecasts of $18.5 billion.
Shifting exchange rates, including a stronger U.S. dollar, negatively affected the revenue of the company. According to the company's earnings release, Google's revenue would have been higher by $541 million if the foreign exchange rates in the fourth quarter did not change compared with the previous quarter. If such was the case, then Google would have slightly surpassed Wall Street expectations.
Google released several good figures, though, starting with the fact that for the full year of 2014, the company posted revenue of $66 billion, a 19 percent increase compared with the revenue posted for 2013.
The company's profits for the quarter increased by over 40 percent to a total of $4.8 billion, which is equivalent to $7.01 per share. Full-year 2014 profits slightly grew, up almost 3 percent to $20.6 billion.
However, the price of shares of Google decreased by around 2 percent in after-hours trading due to the announcement that the company missed the expectations set by Wall Street. The stock of the company has decreased by 9 percent throughout 2014 as Google's investors were not fond of the high spending for the research and development of products and services that are not yet yielding big returns.
Most of Google's revenue came from advertising sales, which raked in $16.2 billion for the company. The figure is an almost 15 percent improvement compared with last year's fourth quarter. However, the company is seeing a decline in the growth of its paid clicks over recent periods.
Google said that aggregate paid clicks increased 14 percent compared with the fourth quarter of last year, but only 11 percent compared with the third quarter of 2014. Paid clicks for last year's third quarter were higher by 17 percent compared with the third quarter of 2013.
The expenses incurred by the company, however, increased by a massive 22 percent to $13.7 billion, spurred by a 46 percent increase in costs for research and development, which was posted as $2.8 billion.
Google has invested billions of dollars into high-tech Google X initiatives such as the Google Glass smart eyewear, driverless cars and the Internet-granting balloons of Project Loon. Investors are frustrated with these moves because, while they attract media attention, they do not currently lead to revenue and profit for the company.
