Google taps into mobile growth

Article Excerpt

GOOGLE INC. $742 (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 328.6 million; Market cap: $243.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.google.com) is the world’s top Internet search engine, with about two-thirds of this market. The company makes money by selling advertising on its websites. Google gets 96% of its revenue from advertising. The company also offers a variety of free services such as Gmail (email), YouTube (videos) and Google+ (social networking). These services help draw more users to Google’s websites, which lets the company sell more ads and charge higher ad rates. Android gives Google an edge The stock is down around 4% from its recent peak of $774 in October 2012. That’s because investors fear that rising use of mobile devices to access the Internet will hurt Google’s earnings. Advertisers pay lower rates for mobile ads, because they are more difficult to see on smaller screens than traditional…