Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet
Source: Google
the alphabet Shares rose in extended trading Thursday after the company reported results that beat analysts' estimates, showed higher profits at its cloud division and reported its first earnings.
The after-hours jump pushed Alphabet's market cap past $2 trillion.
Here are the results.
Earnings per share: $1.89 vs. $1.51 expected by LSEG Revenue: $80.54 billion vs. $78.59 billion expected by LSEG
Wall Street is also monitoring several other numbers in the report:
YouTube ad revenue: $8.09 billion vs. $7.72 billion expected, according to StreetAccount. Google Cloud revenue: $9.57 billion vs. $9.35 billion expected, according to StreetAccount. Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC): $12.95 billion $12.74 billion expected, according to StreetAccount.
Alphabet's revenue rose 15% from $69.79 billion the previous year, the fastest growth rate since early 2022.
Alphabet said its board of directors approved a cash dividend of 20 cents per share to be paid on June 17 to shareholders of record as of June 10. The company said it “intends to pay quarterly cash dividends in the future.”
Alphabet earnings follow deadwhich announced its first dividend in February.
The company also said its board of directors authorized an additional $70 billion worth of stock buybacks “in a manner deemed to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.” Alphabet ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities worth $108 billion, down slightly from $110.9 billion a year earlier.
Net income jumped 57% to $23.66 billion, or $1.89 per share, from $15.05 billion, or $1.17 per share, the previous year.
The company also beat Wall Street expectations for YouTube ad revenue and cloud revenue.
Google reported total ad sales of $61.66 billion, compared to $54.55 billion last year. Google's core advertising business is accelerating again after a difficult 2022 and 2023, when rising interest rates and inflationary fears forced brands to pull back on spending.
Operating income at Google's cloud business more than quadrupled to $900 million, showing the company is finally turning a big profit after pumping money into the business for years to keep up with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
The company is investing heavily in AI, adding generative AI features to search and other services to ensure consumers continue to use Google's tools even as the way they search for information online changes.
“Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure, and our global product footprint, position us well for the next wave of AI innovation,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in the earnings release.
