By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 23rd, 2024
The company’s executives are optimistic about the growth of some key diverse of its broad platforms.
American multinational technology conglomerate holding company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has released its first-quarter (Q1) 2022 financial report, with a significant miss on key aspects of its business which has a negative impact on the company’s shares. According to the data shared, the total revenue for the quarter came in at $68.01 billion as against the $68.11 billion expected from analysts polled by Refinitiv.
The total revenue shot up by 23% year over year, and despite the revenue for Q1 2021 coming in at $55.3 billion, the rate of growth at the time was 34% year over year as the company capitalized on the reopening economy at the time. Earnings Per Share (EPS) came in at $24.62 per share as against analyst’s expectations of $25.91 according to Refinitiv.
The performance per business unit showed YouTube advertising revenue coming in at $6.87 billion vs. $7.51 billion expected, according to StreetAccount. To Alphabet’s executives, the first-quarter performance was not a bad one, with plans to continually push
“Q1 saw strong growth in Search and Cloud, in particular, which are both helping people and businesses as the digital transformation continues. We’ll keep investing in great products and services, and creating opportunities for partners and local communities around the world,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google.
Despite the drop in the YouTube revenue, Google Cloud results came in better than expected with a total of $5.82 billion, a figure that is better than the $5.76 billion projected according to StreetAccount. However, Alphabet paid more for Traffic Acquisition Cost (TAC) than this period last year.
The TAC is a metric that defines how much the company paid to other firms to source traffic to its platforms. The TAC for Q1 2022 came in at $11.99 billion vs. $11.69 billion expected, according to StreetAccount.
Notably, the revenue miss in relation to analysts’ expectations weighed in on the shares of the firm which closed down by 3.59% on Tuesday to $2,373.00. The losses trickled down into Pre-Market trading, shedding 2.55% to $2,312.50.
GOOGL Shares Rebound Imminent Drawing on Steady Growth
Alphabet (GOOGL) shares might have dropped per investors’ reaction, but the company’s executives are optimistic about the growth of some key diverse of its broad platforms, an outlook that can stir investors in the near future.
According to Pichai, YouTube Shorts, the platform’s TikTok competitor, now records as many as 30 billion daily views, which is double the amount of views the prior quarter and four times as many as the year before. The expectation is that the growth of its traffic can further boost ad revenue in the long term, a development that can impact the company’s shares down the line.
Alphabet’s business is also expected to regain its stance in the near term since halting its business in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.