Google Parent Alphabet Beats Q1 Revenue Expectations Despite Coronavirus Downturn

Alphabet disclosed first quarter revenue of $41.2 billion, beating Wall Street expectations $40.3 billion. The company’s revenue growth rate fell to 13%, down from 17% in the previous quarter. 

Advertising sales still make up most of Alphabet’s total revenue (82%) and rose to $33.8 billion, up from $30.6 billion last year. Traffic acquisition costs came in at $7.45 billion, versus $7.51 expected.

Alphabet reported $9.87 in earnings per share, which was lower than the $10.33 expected, according to Refinitiv.

Google’s “other revenue” segment saw a nice bump in the first quarter, coming in at $4.4 billion compared to $3.6 billion a year ago, with cloud revenue making up $2.8 billion of that number.

YouTube, which has proved over the years to be an enormously profitable acquisition for Alphabet, also continued to show growth, with $4 billion in quarterly advertising revenue.

“Performance was strong during the first two months of the quarter, but then in March we experienced a significant slowdown in ad revenues,” according to Alphabet’s chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, said in a statement. 

She said that the company plans to “sharpen its focus on executing more efficiently” as it faces a second-quarter of what is likely to be a further slowdown in ad revenue.