Two major tech companies delivered earnings reports after trading ended Tuesday—and both Microsoft and Alphabet, Google's parent company, beat analysts' expectations. Before the closely watched results were released, analysts said the companies would need to show strong numbers to justify the steep rise in stock prices this year.
- Alphabet. Google snapped out of an unprecedented advertising slump during its latest quarter, signaling a return to the growth cycle needed to fuel investments in artificial intelligence technology that expected to reshape the competitive landscape. The results for the April-June period released Tuesday by Alphabet Inc., reversed a financial downswing that had raised fears Google was losing its financial steam at the same time advances in AI threatened to undercut the dominant search engine that powers its digital ad empire, the AP reports. But after Google's ad revenue suffered year-over-year declines in consecutive quarters for the first time in its history, ad sales rose 3% from a year ago to $58.1 billion during the second quarter. That was better than analysts had been anticipating, according to FactSet Research. Those gains helped lift Alphabet's total revenue for the period by 7% from last year to $74.6 billion. The company posted a profit of $18.4 billion, or $1.44 per share, a 15% increase from the same time last year.
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