Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) reported third-quarter earnings that topped analysts' expectations on Thursday and revenue that exceeded estimates.
Ad prices went down more than expected during the quarter, and traffic costs were higher than forecast — but revenue was boosted by a higher-than-predicted surge in the volume of clicks on Google ads across the world, especially in Asia.
CFO Ruth Porat told the media Friday, “Google is again stressing this quarter how we're solving big problems and making products that billions of people use every day.
"And fundamental to all of this is our focus in building products with AI at their core, and we believe Google is leading the way here."
Alphabet declared Adjusted Earnings per Share: $9.57 per share vs. $8.33 per share expected by analysts. Revenue measured up to be $27.77 billion vs. the expected $27.2 billion.
That means Alphabet performed better than a year ago, as sales surged 24%. In the year-ago quarter, Alphabet reported revenue of $22.45 billion and adjusted earnings of $7.25 a share (revised downward from $9.06 a share.)
Alphabet makes most of its money from ads: Cost per click (CPC) is the amount that advertisers pay Google each time their ad is clicked, while aggregate paid clicks measures how many times users click on ads.
Traffic Acquisition Costs amounted to $5.502 billion vs. $5.24 billion expected.
CPC declined 18 percent vs. decline of 16.3 percent expected.
Share prices passed $1,020 in early Friday trading — surpassing the all-time intraday high of $1,016.31 set during the regular session on Oct. 18. By noon ET, they were up $61.12, or 6.2%, to $1,052.54.
