Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) now officially has one of the highest corporate credit ratings out there. Standard & Poor’s has raised the internet search giant’s corporate credit rating to AA and now has the rating outlook at Stable after the upgrade. The move is after a 45% gain in sales, about $2.2 billion in quarterly income, and a cash balance of about $46 billion. S&P has also affirmed its A-1+ short-term rating on the company.

“We raised the corporate credit rating to AA from AA- and removed the ratings from CreditWatch… The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the company will sustain its leadership position in online search, display, and advertising and will generate profitable growth in emerging market places. ”

S&P noted that the minimal financial risk profile is and strong business risks are solid. The rating action also assumes that the search, mobile ads, and display markets will continue to see healthy growth over the long-term.

Stocks do not usually react much to a credit rating upgrade and Google is in such good shape that its rating change will by and large not get to help it any time in the near future. The reason is that Google doesn’t need to raise capital. At least that is our assumption. Still, shares are up 3.2% at $667.84 against a 52-week range of $556.52 to $774.38.

JON C. OGG

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