Alphabet’s Increased Transparency in Q4 Isn’t Enough For Investors

When Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) released its fourth-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Monday, the tech giant said that it had $15.35 in earnings per share (EPS) and $46.08 billion in revenue. That compared with consensus estimates of $12.53 in EPS and $46.94 billion in revenue, as well as the $12.77 per share and $39.28 billion reported in the same period of last year.

The Google segment posted fourth-quarter revenues of $45.8 billion, up from $39.0 billion a year ago. The company added some new metrics to its report this quarter. YouTube ads revenues increased 30.8% year over year to $4.72 billion and Google Cloud increased 53.0% to $2.61 billion.

In the fourth quarter, year-over-year traffic acquisition costs paid to Google Network members increased by 14 percentage points. Total traffic acquisition costs rose from $7.44 billion to $8.50 billion.

Alphabet did not offer any guidance in the report. However, the consensus estimates call for $12.22 in EPS and $43.29 billion in revenue for the first quarter.

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Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, commented:

Our investments in deep computer science, including artificial intelligence, ambient computing and cloud computing, provide a strong base for continued growth and new opportunities across Alphabet. I’m really pleased with our continued progress in Search and in building two of our newer growth areas — YouTube, already at $15 billion in annual ad revenue, and Cloud, which is now on a $10 billion revenue run rate.

Shares of Alphabet closed Monday at $1,482.60, in a 52-week range of $1,027.03 to $1,500.58. The consensus price target is $1,541.84. Following the announcement, the stock was down about 3% at $1,438.17 in the after-hours trading session.

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