SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc., operator of the world’s largest Web-search engine, surpassed $800 for the first time as mobile computing bolsters growth.
The shares advanced 1.8 percent to $806.85 in New York, for the highest closing price since the company went public in August 2004.
The stock has gained 33 percent in the past year, compared with a 12 percent increase for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Google is benefiting as more advertisers place promotions on its website, buoyed by the growing number of users who access the service on smartphones and tablets.
The company grabbed 67 percent of the search market in the United States in January, while rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. had less than 30 percent combined, according to ComScore Inc.
As Google has advanced, Apple Inc. has declined 8.4 percent over the past year. Apple, the world’s most valuable technology company, is trading at a 56 percent discount to Google on a price-to-earnings basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the widest spread since July 2006, about a year before the iPhone was introduced.
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