Alphabet gains 4% as it beats on top and bottom lines, boosts buyback
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Alphabet stock rose after hours Tuesday -- (NASDAQ:GOOG) +3.9%; (NASDAQ:GOOGL) +4% -- in the immediate wake of its first-quarter earnings, as the company cleared Wall Street expectations on top and bottom lines and announced an increased buyback.
The company posted $69.8B in revenues -- a 3% year-over-year gain, topping consensus for $68.8B by a full billion -- and noted revenues would have grown 6% in constant currency.
Diluted earnings per share of $1.17 came in well ahead of consensus for $1.07. That figure came affected by a higher-than-expected charges tied to workforce/office space cuts of $2.6B. (The company had also signaled a drop in depreciation expense tied to useful life of servers/network equipment; that came to $988M.)
"We are pleased with our business performance in the first quarter, with Search performing well and momentum in Cloud," CEO Sundar Pichai said.
"We remain committed to delivering long-term growth and creating capacity to invest in our most compelling growth areas by re-engineering our cost base," Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said.
Meanwhile, the board authorized the company to repurchase up to an additional $70B worth of shares from time to time.
Revenue by segment: Google search and other advertising, $40.36B (up 1.9%); YouTube ads, $6.69B (down 2.6%); Google Network ads, $7.5B (down 8.3%); Google other, $7.41B (up 8.8%); Google Cloud, $7.45B (up 28.1%); Other Bets, $288M (down 34.5%).
Headcount rose more than 16% year-over-year to 190,711 employees; that included, however, almost all of the employees affected by plans to cut 12,000 jobs: "We expect most of those affected will no longer be reflected in our headcount by the end of the second quarter of 2023."
Traffic acquisition costs shrank slightly to $11.72B.
Conference call to come at 5 p.m. ET.