Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) 02 (Aug 17 - Dec 25)

[behappyalways]

Alphabet earnings hit by ‘significant slowdown’ in ad sales, but revenue boosts stock
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alpha ... ck_seemore

[winston]

not vested

Alphabet Earnings Miss on Slowing Advertising Revenue

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com - Google-parent Alphabet reported on Tuesday first-quarter revenue that beat analysts' forecasts, but earnings fell short amid slowing growth in its core advertising business and higher customer acquisition costs.

Alphabet A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced earnings per share of $9.87 on revenue of $41.16 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $10.71 on revenue of $40.99 billion. That compared with EPS of $9.50 on revenue of $36.34 billion in the same period a year before. Alphabet had reported EPS of $15.35 on revenue of $46.08 billion in the previous quarter.

The company’s core advertising business grew 10.4% to $33.8 billion, slower than the 16% growth from last year’s fourth quarter.

YouTube ads generated $4.038 billion in revenue in the first quarter, compared with $3.025 billion a year earlier.

"Performance was strong during the first two months of the quarter, but then in March we experienced a significant slowdown in ad revenues," said Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google.

Total acquisition costs rose to $7,452 billion from $6,860 billion a year earlier.

"Alphabet’s beat on sales shows that while ad revenues are under pressure, other parts of the business, led by the cloud computing segment, are helping to mitigate the negative impact coming from the Covid-19 pandemic," Investing.com analyst Haris Anwar said.

"But that doesn’t mean that the company is out of the woods. The real slowdown in sales is likely to come in 2Q when the giant will face the full impact of this financial and health crisis."

Google’s cloud business saw revenue jump 52% to $2.78 billion.

Analysts are expecting EPS of $9.17 and revenue of $39.15 billion in the upcoming quarter.


Source: Investing.com

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-ma ... ue-2153809

[investar]

Solid as a rock! Index plus story for years to come?

[winston]

not vested

What Analysts Are Saying About Alphabet Stock Going Forward

by Chris Lange

Wedbush reiterated an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $1,550 from $1,375.
The company’s results were largely in line with recently lowered expectations, as analysts had built a slowing advertising environment into models.

Management noted that while overall performance was strong throughout January – February, advertising revenues experienced a significant and sudden slowdown in March, with a particular pullback across brand advertising.

While search activity and YouTube usage have clearly grown in the wake of the pandemic, search has shifted towards less commercial topics and advertising budget declines contributed to meaningful revenue deceleration…

Advertising outlook visibility remains limited, but negative trends and potential for macroeconomic revision suggest continued deceleration.

SunTrust reiterated a Buy rating and raised its price target to $1550 from $1350.

Alphabet continues to be an attractive growth story at a compelling valuation in our view, post a tumultuous first quarter, with a robust Jan/Feb but a challenging March/April due to Covid-19.

While Search and Brand ads on YouTube (YT) are currently under pressure, YT and Cloud are bright spots, and so is on-going cost containment and increased operating efficiency.

Source: 24/7 Wall Street

https://247wallst.com/technology-3/2020 ... MAY052020a

[winston]

not vested

Safest Stocks to Buy, No. 3: Alphabet Inc.

Last week, Wall Street warned that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and other FAANG stocks would struggle in the face of COVID-19. But companies like Alphabet have proven that they are largely immune to the pandemic.

The “stay at home” orders didn’t have the impact that many had anticipated. While the firm did report a slowdown in advertising revenue growth, its cloud revenue and YouTube revenue helped pump the stock higher and alleviated concerns about the firm’s ability to weather this storm. In fact, YouTube advertising revenue increased 33% year over year.

Looking ahead, the company has promised to cut marketing budgets, hike its buybacks, and seek new avenues of growth. But given that more companies recognize the importance of an online presence, we anticipate that the firm will benefit from the further digitalization of the American economy.

The company has an incredible economic moat that limits competition and protects its market share. In addition, the stock has a diverse blend of profit centers that will help the company remain stable during this challenging time.

Shares of Alphabet trade at roughly $1,350. However, there is good reason to anticipate that the stock will tick back toward its 52-week high of $1,530 by the end of the year. That price target represents upside of more than 13% through the balance of the year.

Source: Daily Trade Alert

[winston]

not vested

US state attorneys general likely to bring antitrust lawsuits against Google: source

[WASHINGTON] A group of state attorneys general led by Texas are likely to file an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's Google and are working on potential litigation for later this year, a person familiar with the situation said on Friday.

The Justice Department is also moving toward bringing a case as soon as this summer, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Shares of Alphabet fell about 1.5 per cent in after-hours trading.

Google - along with Facebook, Amazon.com and Apple - are under a series of probes into allegations that the tech behemoths use their clout to unfairly defend their market share, including one by the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

The federal probe of Google focuses on search, advertising and management of its Android operating system.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled an antitrust investigation of Google in 2013 with a reprimand.

Source: Reuters

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/techno ... gle-source

[behappyalways]

Google reportedly rescinds job offers for thousands of contractors and temporary workers
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/29/google- ... temps.html

[behappyalways]

Alphabet Q2 results show ad spending is still in a rut
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alpha ... ck_seemore

[winston]

not vested

Google:

Before we even dive into the results, Nathanson posed that Google's GOOGL ad revenue was hit harder than Facebook's potentially because Facebook's ad products are still in their infancies, as brands are still shifting spend into them from less up-to-date ad-buying platforms.

Google revenue was $38.2 billion, against estimates of just over $37 billion, with the actual result falling 2%.

The revenue was "driven by gradual improvement in our ads business and strong growth in Google Cloud and Other Revenues," Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet said on the earnings print.

Google Cloud, which has been flourishing of late, prevented revenue from falling too hard on a account of poor ad spend.

Cloud revenue was $3 billion, rising 42% year-over-year. That was not great against expectations, but Google clearly has a growing - albeit still small - cloud business.

Adjusted EPS was $10.13 against estimates of $8.21, with the actual result falling considerably year-over-year.

Google did elude to some lack of visibility on ad revenues for the second half of the year.

The stock, slightly extended from a rally into earnings, fell more than 4% Friday.

Source: The Street

[winston]

not vested

Buy This Stock’s Post-Earnings Dip

by Matt McCall

Alphabet’s second quarter earnings weren’t great.

Revenue declined year-over-year for the first time ever.

Earnings per share fell 29%.

Despite lower pricing, YouTube ad revenue increased almost 6%.

“Other” revenue for Google, which includes YouTube TV, rose more than 25%.

Google Cloud outgrew Amazon and nearly matched Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a 43% jump year-over-year.

Self-driving cars? The Waymo business remains a leader.

Artificial intelligence? Alphabet is leading the way.

Source: Investor Place

https://dailytradealert.com/2020/08/05/ ... nings-dip/