Alphabet posts 4Q profit, higher taxes hurt earnings

Alphabet Inc revealed its fourth-quarter financial results and they are somewhat of a mixed bag. During the holiday season revenue from advertising went up 17.4% to $22.4 billion. However earnings per share were $9.36, which is lower than the $9.67 expected by analysts.

The CFO Ruth Porat underlined that the company broadens its business in hardware, app sales and cloud services which climbed 62% to $3.4 billion.

Results could be even better but Google was hit with a higher tax rate of 22%, contributing to the dent in profitability.

Google-branded hardware showed promise - Google Home, the Pixel gained traction over the holidays, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said to the media.

Research companies estimate Google will hit $60.92 billion in search ad revenue for 2016, or almost 60% of the search ad market worldwide.

Alphabet’s Other Bets that include Google Fiber, Nest, Waymo and the research facility for “moon shot” ventures X increased revenue to $262 million from $150 million. However it still contributed a $1.09B loss.

The company’s consolidated revenue rose to $26.06 billion above the average estimate of $25.26 billion.

Via