Alphabet Declares a Dividend
Microsoft also reports good numbers.
Alphabet $GOOGL is now a dividend stock.And investors, traders, and speculators like it.
GOOGL surged more than 13 percent in after-hours trading Thursday following management’s release of first-quarter results, which included that announcement that the tech giant would commence a $0.20 per share quarterly payout.
Cloud revenue grew by 28 percent, as total revenue of $67.6 billion beat a consensus forecast of $66.1 billion. Earnings per share were $1.89 versus an estimate of $1.53.
GOOGL’s capex budget for the first quarter was $12 billion. Porat said management expects to maintain capex at or above that level through the year.
Microsoft $MSFT posted its own set of expectations-beating first-quarter numbers, its shares rising by more than 4 percent in the post-market.
Fiscal third-quarter revenue grew by 17 percent to $61.9 billion, beating a consensus forecast of $60.9 billion. Earnings per share were $2.94 versus an estimate of $2.83.
CFO Amy Hood noted “healthy” growth across the Azure cloud computing platform, including non-AI and AI services. Hood noted that the latter dynamic “is important.”
“While of course it’s still early in the long-term AI monetization opportunity,” Hood said, “we feel good about where we are.”
Capex for the quarter was $14 billion.
“We’re seeing the AI demand continue to grow,” Hood said, “and so we’ll continue to work to match that.”