SAN FRANCISCO - Google Incorporated's first-quarter profit climbed 30 percent to surpass analysts' predictions in a performance that alleviated some of the economic worries that have hammered the Internet search leader's stock this year.
The news, released after the stock market closed Thursday, lifted Google's recently drooping shares almost 18 percent.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it earned $1.31 billion, or $4.12 per share, during the first three months of the year. That compared with $1 billion, or $3.18 per share, in the first quarter of 2007.
If not for expenses to cover stock given its employees, Google said it would have made $4.84 per share.
That figure outstripped the average projection of $4.52 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
"It's clear we are well-positioned for 2008 and beyond, regardless of the business environment we are surrounded by," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told analysts during a Thursday conference call.
Investors had serious doubts about Google's short-term prospects before Thursday.
The financial targets that guide Wall Street's expectations had fallen during the past two months, as Web-surfing data convinced analysts that fewer people have been clicking on Google's links to advertising amid mounting evidence the U.S. economy had tumbled into a recession. Google makes money from the links only when Web surfers click on them.
