Google profits 82% up, shares drop

Google today announced their financial results. They were lower than Wall Street analysts predicted due to a higher-than-expected tax rate and Google's shares took a big drop in after hours trading.

Google's stock closed at $432.66 today and at press time it has dropped 12.40 percent to $379 in after hours trading.

Google's net income for Q4 2005 was $372.2 million, which is 82 percent more than last year's $204.1 million.

Net income for the fourth quarter rose to $372.2 million, or $1.22 per diluted share, from the year earlier quarter's $204.1 million, or 71 cents a share.

Gross revenue grew 86 percent to $1.92 billion as advertising revenues soared, meeting analysts' targets.