Alphabet misses Q3 revenue targets
Alphabet delivered mixed third quarter financial results on Thursday, topping profit estimates but missing on revenue.
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The parent company of Google -- which has faced a rash of controversy in recent weeks, from the cover up of a Google+ data leak to the company's apparent willingness to censor search results in order to penetrate the Chinese market -- posted non-GAAP earnings of $13.06 per share on revenue of $33.7 billion. Net income was $9.2 billion.
On average, Wall Street was looking for Q3 earnings of $10.40 per share with $34.05 billion in revenue.
Net revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC) was expected to be at $27.3 billion. Alphabet delivered slightly below target with $27.16 billion in revenue excluding TAC. Traffic acquisition costs accounted for 23 percent of Google ad revenues.
Google revenues, which include the company's enterprise cloud, software, and data management products, attributed most of Q3 sales with $33.59 billion in revenue. Google's Other revenues -- which now includes the smart thermostat business Nest -- were $4.6 billion. Revenue in Alphabet's "moonshot" Other Bets category came in at $146 million with operating losses rising a bit to $727 million.
Google's cost-per-click, which is how much it makes off each advertising click, decreased 28 percent year over year and seven percent quarter over quarter. The company's total advertising revenue was $28.95 billion, up from $24.07 billion a year ago.