Google First Quarter 2008 Results Up 30 Percent

Google reported earnings yesterday and surprised analysts with a 30% increase in earnings over the same quarter last year. Contributing to this result were lower than expected taxes and strong ad revenues being generated outside the U.S.

This is the 12th quarter out of 15 since Google went public that its performance has exceeded analyst expectations. So is it time to buy some shares?

Evidently some institutional investors think so. The stock is already up 20% today in the first hour of trading with nearly 10 million shares traded--25% more volume than an average day.

As companies get larger it becomes more and more difficult to sustain double-digit earnings growth, so it will be interesting to see how Google does over the next few years. So far, their business model has paid their investors handsomely.

Anyone out there buying Google today, or better yet, did you own it yesterday?