Google parent reports record profit

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, beat its own quarterly profit record in Q1, booking a 32% digital ad sales jump from a year ago.

Reuters’ Paresh Dave and Subrat Patnaik reported:

Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) on Tuesday reported record profit for the second consecutive quarter and a $50 billion share buyback but warned a surge in usage and ad sales during the pandemic may slow as people resume in-person activities.

With online consumer activity remaining elevated in the first quarter, Alphabet beat analysts’ revenue estimates and nearly surpassed the sales record it set in the fourth quarter.

Yahoo Finance’s Chris Velazco wrote:

Such big lifts shouldn’t come as much surprise — after all, we spent much of the year-ago quarter in the early phases of a pandemic that prompted some businesses to dramatically slash their advertising budgets. Those marketing dollars are what keep Google in the green, and with fewer of them to work with, Alphabet spent the last year posting muted financials compared to the rest of its FAANG cohorts. Still, Alphabet’s latest release is yet another sign that the industry is slowly returning to business as usual — or something like it, anyway.

Jennifer Elias from CNBC noted:

Google Cloud revenue grew 46% year over year to $4.05 billion, which was in line with Wall Street’s expectations. It lost $974 million during the quarter, significantly narrowing losses from the same period a year ago. Google Cloud includes infrastructure and data analytics platforms, collaboration tools such as Google Docs and Sheets, and “other services for enterprise customers.”