Google surprises investors with stellar Q2 results; stock shoots straight up.

Google’s financial results for the second quarter of this year are in, and the company has had a surprisingly good run over those three months.

According to today’s report, the company managed to pull in $17.7 billion in revenue over the course of the quarter, which accounts for 11% growth year over year and 3% growth sequentially over Q1. Operating income also grew between 13 and 16 percent depending on whether you use generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) or not. Profits were also up, just shy of $4 billion going by GAAP standards, up $600 million compared to this time last year.

The positive results surprised investors on Wall Street, who had been disappointed by the company’s performance over the previous two quarters, when Google came in under expectations. But this positive news sent the company’s stock soaring, and is now over 11 percent higher in after hours trading.

So what accounts for the company’s surprisingly good performance? Mobile and YouTube mostly. The company saw its mobile search go up a lot, with the gap between mobile searches and desktop revenue getting smaller.

Meanwhile, all those new YouTube pre-rolls ads have seemingly been doing their job, in terms of creating value for the company. Not only that but the number of advertisers on Youtube is up by 40%, while the average spend is also up by a whopping 60%.

All in all, this is great news for Google, which not too long ago said it was struggling to get YouTube to profitability. All that’s left to see is if the company manages to do it all again next quarter.

Source: Google