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Key Takeaway
- Google-parent Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings beat analyst expectations.
- Net income came in at $20.69 or $1.64 per diluted share.
- Alphabet’s revenue grew 13% to $86.3 billion as cloud segment revenue jumped 25%.
- Shares slipped as Google’s ad revenue narrowly fell short of Wall St. projections.
Google-parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) posted better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter but ad revenues didn’t grow at a fast enough pace. The company’s shares fell sharply in after-hours trading.
Alphabet’s net income came in at $20.69 billion, or $1.64 per diluted share. Revenue was up 13% to $86.3 billion. Google’s advertising revenue for the quarter, at $65.52 billion, fell just short of analyst projections of $65.73 billion. Ad revenues include $48 billion of Google search revenue and about $9.2 billion of YouTube ad revenue.
The company’s cloud revenue at $9.19 billion was up 25% year-over-year.
“We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud. Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come,” said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Google launched Gemini, its new AI model, last month, raising optimism about the company’s ability to be a strong competitor for OpenAi’s ChatGPT.
| Q4 2023 | Analyst Estimates for Q4 2023 | Q4 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $86.3 billion | $85.24 billion | $76.05 billion |
| (Diluted) Earnings Per Share | $1.64 | $1.61 | $1.05 |
| Net Income | $20.69 billion | $20.28 billion | $13.62 billion |
Google shares were down 6.5% at $143.05 in after-hours trading at around 5:10 p.m. Through Tuesday’s close, the stock had gained 53% over the past year.