Google owner Alphabet beat expectations and pays first dividend – E24

The technology giant is paying dividends for the first time. The share rose sharply after the release of the figures.

The financial facet for Google’s owner company was better than expected both at the top and bottom of the accounts in the first quarter of 2024. Revenues and profit rose significantly from the same time last year.

• The revenue of Alphabet landed at 80.54 billion dollars. That was slightly better than analysts’ expectations of $79.04 billion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
• Earnings per share of $1.89 were also stronger than expectations, which stood at $1.53 per share.
• In total, the profit after tax ended at 23.66 billion dollars.

First dividend

At the same time, Alphabet reports that the board has approved the start of a dividend programme. The company’s first ever dividend will be $0.20 per share.

Alphabet also writes that the company plans to pay quarterly dividends in the future as well.

In addition, the board has approved expanding the share buyback program by an additional $70 billion.

The Alphabet share rises a whopping 13.7 per cent in after-market trading just after 23.

The Alphabet share has generally had a good development over the past year. Before today’s quarterly figures, it was up more than 14 percent since the New Year.

Growth continues for cloud services

Much of Google’s income comes from advertising linked to various Google services, such as the search engine and YouTube. In addition, the company has, among other things, the cloud service Google Cloud.

Cloud service revenue continued to increase in the first quarter to $9.57 billion. In advance, these were expected to come in at 9.37 billion.

The operating result of Google Cloud was also better than expected, with a profit of 900 million dollars.

AI venture

– Our results in the first quarter reflect strong results from search, YouTube and cloud services. We are well into our Gemini era and there is good momentum throughout the company. Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure, and our global product footprint, position us well for the next wave of AI innovation, says Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

As with many of the large technology companies, there is tension about what Google says about AI, the plans for this venture going forward and investments in the field.

Google has launched its advanced AI model Gemini, as a competitor to ChatGPT. The venture, which includes several tools that are integrated into Google’s products.

Alphabet presents figures at the same time as another important technology and AI player, Microsoft. Shares in Microsoft also rose in after-market trading after beating expectations.

Another tech giant, Meta, presented its quarterly figures yesterday. The Facebook owner beat expectations for income and profit, but the stock fell nonetheless. Among other things, Meta put forward some disappointing guidance for revenues in the second quarter, and announced a further increase in investments in AI.