Research archive for GOOG

After the market closed last night, Google (also known as Alphabet), reported its second-quarter numbers. The street had high expectations for the company, but those were easily surpassed as Google posted its fourth consecutive quarter of record profits. The stock is up another 3% in after-hours trade.

We often talk about how massive companies compete against each other. But leading tech giants also do a lot business together. Did you know that Apple is Google Cloud's biggest client? When you pay Apple a monthly iCloud fee for your data storage, you are actually using Google.

On Tuesday, Alphabet (Google) released blockbuster first quarter numbers. Revenues shot up 34% to $55.3 billion. The biggest rise was from advertising revenues which increased from $33.8 billion to $44.7 billion year-on-year, the fastest growth in four years!

Over the last two weeks, education companies Advtech and Curro both released okay looking numbers. Nursery school divisions have been weak because there is no legal requirement to send a child to nursery school. Both groups successfully launched digital-only schools. Online learning is becoming the new norm, so it makes sense to have digital-only schools. Not having to build and maintain a physical campus is a huge saving!

Taking a cut on app store transactions has become a controversial topic after the big rift between Apple and Epic Games. Apple App Store and Google Play (Android) are the top 2 players in that world. Their argument is that they created the platforms, meaning they should get their pound of flesh for every purchase. Makes sense. The problem for the developers is that the pound of flesh is currently 30%. Is that too high? Maybe.

I have run out of words to describe what a good investment owning shares in Google has been. Yes, really. This company is amazing. They were out with quarterly results again on Tuesday night and they really delivered superlative numbers. The stock price went up 10% at one point on Wednesday. They now trade above $2 000 a share.

Alphabet/ Google was one of the many tech companies to report on Thursday night. Thanks to a strong beat on expectations, the stock managed to close up 3.8% - good going consider the overall beating that the Nasdaq took on Friday. Google reported revenue of $46bn and EPS of $16.20, analysts were only expecting $43bn and $11.18, respectively.

We have covered Facebook's ambitions to become an online retailer in detail. It turns out that another massive tech brand has similar ambitions. According to Bloomberg Google plans to Make YouTube a Major Shopping Destination.

Google is well ahead of other big multinationals when it comes to their carbon footprint. In fact they became carbon neutral all the way back in 2007 - an amazing achievement! But remember they are a platform so it is slightly easier to become carbon neutral then say a manufacturing company.

Yesterday Google announced that it will invest $450 million into security firm ADT. Remember that Google owns the smart home device business Nest. This collaboration will try to kick start that business which has been a disappointment so far.

On Thursday last week Alphabet (Google) released second quarter results. Revenues came in at $38.3bn, which was 2% lower than the second quarter of 2019 but 3% higher than expectations. Earnings per share smashed expectations by 28%, coming in at $10.13 a share.

A few days back I spoke about big techs investments into India and the tough regulations that favour local businesses. Well that hasn't stopped Google wanting to further tap the 500 million internet users in that country.

I am very excited about the prospects for Google Cloud. We have seen how well it has done for Amazon and Microsoft. The cloud business is still in its early stages and I believe there is room for a third big player. That is why I was excited when I saw the following headline Google, Deutsche Bank Agree to 10-Year Cloud Partnership.

Google announced on Tuesday that they are buying North, a Canadian company that makes smart glasses. Of course, Google has mountains of money and likes to buy talent and good ideas.

If you have been scouting for investment opportunities in online education, you may already have exposure to it if you are a Vestact client. During lockdown Google has doubled its Google Classroom users to 100 million.