Google's stock closed at $1,011.41 today, joining an exclusive, over-$1,000 club that includes Priceline.com and Seaboard Corp., which produces turkey and hogs.
The rally for the world's largest search engine, Bloomberg reports, comes on the heels of optimism about the company's advertising offerings.
"Google is expanding its advertising in other ways, including working with direct rivals such as Facebook. Customers of its DoubleClick Bid Manager, which helps companies quickly buy ads across the Internet, will soon get access to the Facebook Exchange, Google said today. The feature, available to Google clients in the next few months, will let marketers target Facebook users based on their browsing.
"The campaigns and other initiatives should help average ad prices recover in the next year or so, according to Victor Anthony, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets Inc.
"'The results clearly demonstrate that Google remains kind of the best of breed, best of class in the online advertising space, really within the Internet space itself,' Anthony said."
The New York Times reports much of the growth in advertising sales for Google comes from mobile devices. Clicks on desktops have remained flat, while phone clicks doubled and tablet clicks were up 63 percent.
"Much of the growth in mobile was initially in the developed world, where ad prices are generally higher," the Times reports. "As the use of smartphones and tablets spreads into developing economies, the revenue per user is likely to drop, affecting overall profits unless Google can grow even faster in these markets."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
