Alphabet (GOOG) reported a drop of 24% in third-quarter earnings after the market closed on Tuesday, October 25. Gross revenue rose just 6% to $69.09 billion. In the third quarter of 2021, revenue grew by just 6% to $69.09 billion from the third quarter of 2021. In that 2021 quarter revenue had grown by 41%.
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.25 a share–instead of the reported $1.06 a share. In the third quarter of 2021, the company reported earnings of $1.39 per share on revenue of $65.1 billion.
The problems: YouTube and company-wide advertising revenue. YouTube ad revenue fell nearly 2% to $7.07 billion amid increased competition from TikTok. Analysts had estimated YouTube ad revenue of $7.5 billion, up 3.5%. Overall Google advertising revenue rose 2.5% to $54.48 billion, missing estimates of $56.58 billion.
Google said cloud-computing revenue rose 37% to $6.87 billion, edging estimates of $6.7 billion.
Today, October 26, shares of Alphabet closed down 9.63%
Earlier in the day, the damage from Alphabet’s miss was limited to technology stocks and the NASDAQ. But as trading moved toward the close, the damage to the NASDAQ grew, with the NASDAQ Composite down 2.04% at the close and spread to the larger market. At the close, the Standard and Poor’s 500 was off 0.74% although the Dow Jones Industrial Average clung to the green with a 0.1% gain for the day.
One piece of news that suggests that the Alphabet miss isn’t just a company or sector problem: The company said it will slow hiring in the December quarter and in 2023. Google had 186,779 employees as of September 30, up 24% from a year earlier.
