Google "Ecstatic” On Q1 Results

On its post first-quarter conference call this afternoon, Google (GOOG) CEO (and now Chairman) Eric Schmidt said “we are ecstatic about our financial results this past quarter.”

Schmidt was careful to warn that the company is “about to enter our seasonally slower summer growth period.”

Schmidt stressed that the company has “excellent performance in the U.S.,” but that international “was even better.”

Schmidt said the company continues to make significant investment in its core business, in particular data centers and engineers. “The core business is driving out success,” he said. “It lets us take calculated risks.”

George Reyes, the company’s chief financial officer, noted that non-GAAP operating margins in the quarter were 38%, up from 37% in Q4.

Co-fonder Larry Page said the company is seeing “healthy” sign-ups for Gmail accounts; he says “growth is accelerating even more” at YouTube. ” The video site, he says “is going gangbusters.”

After hours, the stock was up $9.32 at $480.97.