Alphabet Inc Shares Surge On Earnings, Revenue Beats

Alphabet (GOOGL) released its latest earnings report after closing bell tonight, posting earnings of $7.73 per share on $24.7 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting GAAP earnings of $7.38 per share and $19.8 billion in revenue. In last year’s first quarter, the Google parent reported $20.3 billion in revenue and $6.02 per share in earnings.

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Tonight’s report is the first in which Alphabet has switched to a focus on GAAP numbers over non-GAAP, which may cause some confusion as Wall Street evaluates the numbers over the next few hours.

Alphabet’s revenues grow

Alphabet said Google Properties revenues rose to $17.4 billion, while Google Network Members’ properties revenues rose to $4 billion. Google ad revenues rose to $21.4 billion, while other Google revenues rose to $3.1 billion. Google segment revenues rose to $24.5 billion, while Other bets revenues rose to $244 million.

Aggregate paid clicks rose 44% year over year, while paid clicks on Google properties rose 53%. Paid clicks on Google Network Members properties rose 10%. Aggregate cost per click fell 19% year over year, and cost per click on Google properties fell 21%. Alphabet said it changed its methodology for paid clicks and cost per click, resulting in a “modest increase in paid clicks and a modest decrease in cost-per-click.”

Alphabet deals with YouTube controversy

The Google parent is still dealing with a controversy regarding some ads that appeared in potentially offensive content, resulting in some advertisers boycotting YouTube and some Google services. However, the impact in the first quarter was expected to be miniscule, as the boycott didn’t begin until toward the end of the quarter. Analysts are expecting a bigger impact in the current quarter, although most don’t see the YouTube/ Google controversy as being very serious because Search wasn’t affected and the percentage of Alphabet’s revenue that was at risk isn’t believed to be very large.