Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during Stanford’s 2024 Business, Government, and Society forum in Stanford, California, US, on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
- Alphabet beat on earnings and revenue in its first-quarter results.
- Revenue increased 15% from a year earlier, the fastest rate of growth since early 2022.
- The company also announced its first dividend and a $70 billion buyback.
Alphabet shares rallied in extended trading on Thursday after the company reported results that topped analysts' estimates, showed soaring profits in its cloud division and announced its first dividend.
The after-hours jump lifted Alphabet's market cap past $2 trillion.
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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 watching several other numbers in the report:
- YouTube advertising 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 increased 15% from $69.79 billion a year earlier, the fastest rate of growth since early 2022.
Money Report
Alphabet said its board approved a cash dividend of 20 cents per share to be paid on June 17, to stockholders of record as of June 10. The company said it "intends to pay quarterly cash dividends in the future."
Alphabet's dividend follows Meta, which announced its first dividend in February.
The company also said its board authorized the repurchase of an additional $70 billion in shares "in a manner deemed in the best interest of the company and its stockholders." Alphabet closed the quarter with cash, equivalents and marketable securities of $108 billion, down slightly from $110.9 billion a year earlier.
Net income jumped 57% to $23.66 billion, or $1.89 a share, from $15.05 billion, or $1.17 a share, a year earlier.
The company also beat Wall Street's expectations for YouTube advertising revenue and cloud revenue.
Google reported total ad sales of $61.66 billion — up from $54.55 billion a year ago. Google's core advertising business is reaccelerating after a difficult 2022 and 2023, when rising interest rates and inflationary concerns forced brands to pull back their spending.
Operating income in Google's cloud business more than quadrupled to $900 million, showing that the company is finally generating substantial profits after pouring money into the business for years to keep up with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
The company has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence, adding generative AI features to search and other services to ensure that consumers continue using Google tools even as the way they seek 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.
