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Investing.com – Alphabet (NASDAQ:) reported second quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates, driven by performance in its cloud business.
Alphabet stock gained 7% in pre-market Wednesday.
The Google parent earnings per share of $1.44 on revenue of $74.6 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $1.34 on revenue of $72.82B.The better-than-expected results were driven by advertising growth and stronger-than-expected growth in its cloud business.
The better-than-expected results were driven by advertising growth and stronger-than-expected growth in its cloud business.
Google Advertising climbed 3.2%, to $44.68B, with Google Search & other rising 4.8% to $40.69B, YouTube adds up 4.4% to $7.67B, beating estimates of $7.43B.
Google Cloud was up 28%, to $8.03B, ahead of analyst estimates of $7.87B.
Traffic acquisition costs, or TAC, a major cost for Google, rose to $12.54B from $12.21B in the prior-year period.
The company also announced that chief financial officer Ruth Porat will assume the newly created role of President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google from Sept. 1.
Ruth will be responsible for Alphabet’s investments in its other bets portfolio, the company added.
A number of Wall Street analysts increased their price targets on Alphabet stock after the Q2 EPS report.
Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik highlighted the Search beat and a “solid progress” on the AI front.
“A clean quarter. Balanced risk/reward from here for a company steadily improving top-line while all-in on an expensive AI endeavor,” the analyst said.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) analyst Eric Sheridan hiked the price target by $12 to $152 per share on the Buy-rated GOOGL stock.
“While some questions remain around AI’s impact on core products or cost structure, we continue to see Alphabet as a leader that is well positioned to capitalize on a consumer/enterprise computing shift across multiple platforms/products.”
Additional reporting by Senad Karaahmetovic
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