Alphabet Drops Despite Beating On Revenue And Earnings As Cloud Disappoints
With Microsoft MSFT reporting a beat on the top and bottom line elsewhere, moments ago Google GOOG, GOOGL also posted solid Q3 numbers when it beat on both the top and bottom line, with just a small blemish that Google Cloud revenue missed expectations ever so slightly with CapEx also coming in slightly below expectations. Here are the results:
- Revenue $65.12 billion, +5.2% q/q, beating the estimate of $63.39 billion
- Google Services revenue $59.88 billion, +4.9% q/q, beating estimate $58.16 billion
- Google Cloud revenue $4.99 billion, +7.8% q/q, missing estimate $5.04 billion
- Other Bets revenue $182 million, -5.2% q/q, missing estimate $197.1 million
- EPS $27.99 vs. $16.40 y/y, beating the estimate of $23.50
- Operating income $21.03 billion, +88% y/y, also beating the estimate $18.14 billion
- Google Services operating income $23.97 billion, +7.3% q/q, estimate $21.13 billion
- Google Cloud operating loss $644 million, +9% q/q, estimate loss $935.2 million
- Other Bets operating loss $1.29 billion, -7.9% q/q, estimate loss $1.21 billion
- Operating margin 32% vs. 24% y/y, beating estimate 27.8%
- Capital expenditure $6.82 billion, +26% y/y, missing estimate $6.90 billion.
And visually:
As noted above, while Cloud rose 44% Y/Y to $4.99BN, it came in just below the $5.05BN expected and also dropped sequentially; the Street will likely not be too impressed with this disappointment coming at a time when every major FAAMG is rushing to grab market share in the key segment. The silver lining: Cloud did manage to staunch some of its bleeding during the quarter. It reported $644 million in operating losses, down from a $1.2 billion loss last year (yes, Google's cloud division is still losing money).
Another notable figure: Google’s TAC (its payouts to partners) jumped 40% to $11.5 billion. Google has been trying to curb this number for several years. In other words, while Alphabet’s advertising revenue jumped significantly since last year (to $53.1 billion from $37 billion), so did the price the company pays to partners to aid that growth.
Also worth highlighting: GOOGL's workforce rose by 18K to just over 150K people. As Bloomberg notes, much of that growth likely went to its cloud division.
And in a potentially troubling development, Google's "Other" segment which lumps in devices, app store and YouTube subscriptions, only grew 23% to $6.8 billion. That suggests that its app store and hardware sales aren’t going gangbusters.
Commenting on the results, CFO Ruth Porat said: “Our consistent investments to support long-term growth are reflected in strong financial performance, with revenues of $65.1 billion in the quarter. We continued to deliver across our business by providing helpful and valuable experiences for both consumers and our partners.”
Still, after a blowout second quarter, the narrow beat (and in the case of Cloud, miss) investors appear somewhat underwhelmed with the stock swinging after-hours before drifting slightly lower.
(Click on image to enlarge)
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