Alphabet

By Jon Swartz Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s stock initially soared 14% in after-hours trading Thursday following huge spikes in revenue and net income that trounced analysts’ predictions – as well as its first-ever cash dividend of 20 cents per share. Alphabet’s board also authorized the repurchase of up to $70 billion in shares. The search-engine powerhouse reported a jump in first-quarter sales, chiefly through advertising, for total revenue of $80.54 billion, up 15% from $69.8 billion a year ago. Sales minus total acquisition costs (TAC) came in at $67.59 billion, compared with $58.07 billion a year ago. Alphabet (GOOGL) (GOOG) reported first-quarter net income of $23.66 billion, or $1.89 a share, compared with net income of $15.05 billion, or $1.17 a share, in the year-ago quarter. “Our results in the first quarter reflect strong performance from Search, YouTube and Cloud. We are well under way with our Gemini era and […]

Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Q1 revenue is likely to beat Street view, with upside driven by search stability, its YouTube platform, and the benefit from the leap year, BofA Securities said in a Thursday note. The company is set to release its Q1 results on April 25 and BofA Securities said positive factors for this period include search upside, the integration of search generative experience into its search function, the impact of shorts on YouTube traffic and revenue growth, and higher margins from cloud strength. BofA Securities also flagged potential risks to the company’s results such as growing expenditures for new generative artificial intelligence investments, the impact of the Digital Markets Act, and slowing search growth. BofA Securities maintained its buy rating on Alphabet with a price target of $173.

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: We lift our 12-month target price to $175 from $166, on near long-term historical P/E of 22.2x our 2025 EPS estimate, which we raise to $7.88 from $7.54. We up our 2024 EPS to $6.88 from $6.77. Ahead of Q1 results set to be released on 4/25, we see upside to EPS/revenue as we expect strong results from both GOOGL’s Search (+11%) and YouTube (+10%) businesses. We think cloud revenue will grow 26% and see a mid-to-high 20s level being sustained for all of 2024 as we see incremental opportunities tied to AI monetization. We expect GOOGL to unveil a new buyback of at least $70B (same level as the last two years) and see the potential for a dividend initiation following one by Meta Platforms earlier

Needham analyst Laura Martin initiated coverage on Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT) with a Buy rating and a price target of $55. Reddit emphasizes the growing value of its extensive library of human conversations for training large language models (LLMs) and brand “social listening,” as per Martin. The platform’s 18-year collection of daily updated conversations across 1.2 million topics and 7.5 million comments, according to the analyst, positions Reddit as a prime resource for understanding diverse human dialogues and popular expressions. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google’s $200 million deal with Reddit for data access underscores the potential for data licensing revenue, with OpenAI and several Amazon.Com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services LLMs expected to follow suit due to the indispensable nature of Reddit’s data for LLM development, Martin said. She stated that Reddit’s unique data offers significant pricing power for GenAI applications by facilitating a nuanced understanding of language evolution and current terminologies. Unlike alternative sources, Reddit’s real-time human conversations

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: GOOGL held its Google Cloud Next 2024 event in Las Vegas where it made a host of AI hardware/software announcements. Most notably, GOOGL unveiled its first Arm-based custom silicon CPU (Axion) and latest LLM model update (Gemini 1.5 Pro) that offers new enhanced AI capabilities (e.g., native audio). AI features coming to Google Workspace include Google Vids (an AI video creation tool), Gemini additions to Gmail, and a host of productivity tools that it looks to monetize (e.g., AI note taking/meeting summaries, translation, new security package) at an add-on cost of $10/month per user. GOOGL also announced its Vertex AI Agent Builder, a tool for Enterprises to help build AI agents, and confirmed Blackwell GPUs will be available in 2025. Overall, we come away impressed with GOOGL’s

Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Google Cloud said in a blog post that it will invest $1 billion in digital connectivity to Japan to support Google’s Japan Digitization Initiative and improve digital connectivity between the US, Japan and other Pacific Island territories. The investment will fund the expansion of Google’s Pacific Connect initiative, which covers Australia and French Polynesia, and the addition of two new subsea cables to establish new fiber-optic routes between the US and Japan, the company said. Google Cloud said it will collaborate with partners such as KDDI, ARTERIA, Citadel Pacific, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on the planned subsea cables. No timeline was disclosed for the initiative.

BofA Securities analyst Justin Post reiterated a Buy rating on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), with a price forecast of $173. Google kicked off its annual Cloud Next event with a keynote announcing new custom AI chips (Axion & TPUs), platform-wide Gemini integration, strategic partnerships, and customer traction. According to the analyst, Google’s hardware advances, Gemini progress, and AI-driven app demos should help sentiment on AI capabilities. Apart from this, Google’s hardware advances, Gemini progress, and AI-driven app demos should help sentiment on AI capabilities, the analyst adds. Post writes that the Cloud AI cycle could be underappreciated for the industry and a positive driver for Google stock given the growing scale & potential contributor to higher overall revenue growth. In addition, increasing cloud margins aiding EPS and growing stock valuation contribution on ’26 revenues can be positive drivers for Google stock. The analyst specifically highlighted the new custom Axion AI chip (CPUs) in

Alphabet’s Google is one of the most mentioned companies in the U.S. across all news items in the past 12 hours, according to Factiva data. Google is preparing a new AI chip called Axion, which is the type of chip commonly used in big data centers, and can handle everything from YouTube advertising to big data analysis. Axion adds to Google’s efforts to develop new computing resources, beginning with specialized chips used for AI work as it tries to deal with rising artificial-intelligence costs. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva.

Alphabet shares surged to an all-time high after The Wall Street Journal reported Google is making more of its own semiconductors, preparing a new chip that can handle everything from YouTube advertising to big data analysis as the company tries to combat rising artificial-intelligence costs. The Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF ended up 0.5%.

Wedbush’s Dan Ives thinks that a culmination of the AI revolution and improving ad spending will make the March quarter “one to watch” for companies in the technology sector. What Happened: Ives expressed optimism about the prospects of big technology companies in the March 2024 quarter. “I think it’s going to be one for the ages in terms of digital advertising,” Ives explained, underscoring that Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google is his top pick for this reason. Ives thinks that the spending environment in the tech industry is improving. This will help us see the next part of the “AI revolution,” according to Ives. “Big Tech earnings should be robust for 1Q and an important moment to put fuel into this tech rally with earnings/growth moving higher,” Ives said in an interview with CNBC. Ives has been consistent in his belief that the next phase of the AI revolution is the demand of AI and cloud

Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) has been speaking to its advisers about possibly making an offer for HubSpot (HUBS), Reuters reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The technology giant had a meeting with Morgan Stanley’s (MS) investment bankers recently to discuss how much it should offer and whether a transaction would be cleared by regulators, the report said, citing the sources. There is no guarantee that Alphabet will submit a proposal to HubSpot and there is no certainty it will do so, the report added. A HubSpot spokesperson told MT Newswires in an emailed response that the company “does not comment on rumors or speculation”, while Alphabet and Morgan Stanley did not respond. Alphabet’s stock was slightly down, while HubSpot’s shares rose 2% in recent Friday premarket activity.

Alphabet’s (GOOG) reported interest in HubSpot (HUBS) is yet another reminder that the provider of cloud-based customer relationship management platform is “an asset to own,” Macquarie Capital said in a note e-mailed Friday. Reuters recently reported that the parent company of online search giant Google was considering a bid for HubSpot. “The mere mention of interest (in HubSpot) should remind investors of the reasons we have been and continue to be long-term buyers of this high-quality, best-in-class asset,” Macquarie analysts, including Frederick Havemeyer, said. With HubSpot’s current market cap likely at more than $33 billion, the “sheer size” of a potential deal is expected to warrant at least a second request from the US Department of Justice, the analysts said, citing sources familiar with regulatory norms. HubSpot shares were up more than 3% in recent trading, while Alphabet was up 1.6%.