Shares of Google Inc rose nearly 12 percent after the Web search leader’s profit beat forecasts for the first time in the last six quarters, boosted by strong advertising revenue and comments by its new chief financial officer on disciplined spending.
Google rallied to $673.50 in extended trading after closing at $601.78 on Nasdaq. That would mark an all-time high for the stock in regular trading if it closes at that level on Friday, adding roughly $40 billion to its market value.
Google remains the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company after Apple Inc.
Google’s expenses rose 10 percent to $12.9 billion in the second quarter ended June 30 from the year-ago quarter, and remained at 73 percent of revenue, the company said on Thursday. But expenses only grew by $91 million from the first quarter, and as a percentage of revenue declined by 1 percentage point.
“The decline in quarter-over-quarter operating expenses reflects, in part, discipline in expense management and, in part, lower legal expenses than in comparable periods,” CFO Ruth Porat told analysts on a conference call.