Alphabet 2020 Q4 Earnings Results

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) started as an online search firm that later diversified into several other businesses including e-mail, maps, cloud computing, mobile software, and hardware solutions, among many others. Its broad product lineup and size helped it to become one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.

The California-based search engine giant just released better-than-expected quarterly results, sending its shares up more than 8 percent on Wednesday morning. The company reported earnings of $15.23 billion, or $22.30 per share for the fourth quarter, easily beating the analysts’ average estimate of $15.77 per share. Revenue jumped 23 percent on a year-over-year basis to $56.90 billion, as compared to the consensus forecast of $53.13 billion.

The solid quarterly performance was mainly helped by lockdown restrictions that drove the demand for the company’s cloud services, besides fueling its ad business.

Here’s the revenue performance of key segments for the three months ended Dec. 31:

– Ad revenue rose 23 percent on a year-over-year basis to $46 billion.
– YouTube ad revenue skyrocketed 46 percent on a year-over-year basis to $6.9 billion.
– Search revenue jumped 17 percent on a year-over-year basis to $31.9 billion.
– Cloud revenue soared 47 percent on a year-over-year basis to $3.83 billion.

Speaking on the results, CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement, “Our strong results this quarter reflect the helpfulness of our products and services to people and businesses, as well as the accelerating transition to online services and the cloud.”

Alphabet (GOOGL) shares made a new 52-week high of $2,086.99 in the mid-day trading Wednesday following the Q4 results. GOOGL stock has performed well during the past 12 months by rising about 42 percent. The stock’s value has increased about 20 percent so far in 2021, including today’s gain.