Alphabet reported fourth-quarter results Monday that beat expectations across the board. Still, the stock fell 3 per cent in extended trading, on continuing pressure on advertising prices and decreasing margins.
Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates:
Earnings: $12.77 per share vs. $10.82 according to Refinitiv consensus estimates
Revenue: $39.28 billion vs. $38.93 billion according to Refinitiv consensus estimates
Traffic acquisition costs: $7.44 billion vs. $7.62 billion according to StreetAccount
Cost per click on Google properties — which roughly measures the amount Alphabet charges advertisers for each ad served on its web sites — dropped 29 percent from last year and 9 percent from last quarter, which might be alarming investors concerned that Google’s pricing power for ads is eroding.
Alphabet-owned Google is facing new pressure in digital advertising from Amazon’s rising presence in the market and seeing heightened pricing pressure, at the same time its costs of doing business are rising.
Alphabet reported capital expenditures just north of $7 billion for the period, posting a much more expensive quarter than the $5.63 billion in capex that was projected. Read more