After the bell Thursday, Google announced both strong fourth-quarter results and a change in management. Staring in April, Eric Schmidt will transition from CEO to executive chairman, Larry Page will take over as CEO, and Sergey Brin will work on strategy and product development. Total revenue increased 26% in the fourth quarter (21% excluding foreign currency fluctuations) to $8.4 billion. The 21% growth was a slight deceleration from the 24% year-over-year growth in the third quarter. Google's revenue growth fueled impressive profitability, operating margins rose to 35%. Shares were up slightly at midday.
General Electric beat analyst expectations as its fourth-quarter profit jumped 51% on the back on strong industrial demand. Organic industrial growth was 6% in the quarter and the firm was able to cut costs by 2%. GE Capital saw revenue decline, but profit soared as provisions for losses dropped. The firm's order backlog rose to $175 billion from $172 billion and management raised their outlook for 2011. Shares were up almost 5.5% at midday.
Bank of America reported a loss of $1.6 billion as settlements and charges related to the firm's mortgage business weighed on results. Credit quality is also slowly improving, with nonperforming loans, leases, and foreclosed properties declining 5.5% during the quarter and 8.6% over the course of the year. The company's wealth-management businesses benefited from a healthier market, with asset-management fees and brokerage income increasing as markets rose and trading increased. Shares dropped 1.2% on the report.
no major economic date released, but GOOG, GE supported market. let's see how long it can be.
we are the one in bear side.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment