Alphabet Q4 Profit Rises; Revenue Up 17%

(RTTNews) - Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL) reported fourth-quarter earnings per share of $15.35 compared to $12.77, a year ago. On average, 35 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $12.59, for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Net income increased to $10.67 billion from $8.95 billion, previous year.

Fourth-quarter revenues were $46.08 billion, an increase in constant currency of 19 percent year over year. Analysts expected revenue of $46.94 billion for the quarter. For the fourth-quarter, Google revenues amounted to $45.81 billion, an increase from $39.00 billion. Google advertising generated revenue of $37.93 billion, higher than $32.52 billion, a year ago. Google Search & other contributed revenue of $27.19 billion compared to $23.32 billion, last year.

Fiscal year 2019 earnings per share rose to $49.16 from $43.70, previous year. Fiscal year revenue was $161.86 billion, up 18% year over year and up 20% on a constant currency basis.

"Our investments in deep computer science, including artificial intelligence, ambient computing and cloud computing, provide a strong base for continued growth and new opportunities across Alphabet. I'm really pleased with our continued progress in Search and in building two of our newer growth areas — YouTube, already at $15 billion in annual ad revenue, and Cloud, which is now on a $10 billion revenue run rate," said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google.

Shares of Alphabet Inc. were down nearly 4% after hours.