Alphabet Reports Record Q1 Results, Announces Dividend and Buyback Plan

Alphabet, the parent company of Google and other tech brands, saw a significant surge in share prices by 10% on Friday morning following impressive financial results for Q1 that outstripped projections. In comparison to similar reports one year earlier, sales had rocketed by an astonishing 15%, marking their fastest growth rate since early 2022. This surpassed the anticipated $78.59 billion in revenue forecast by analysts polled by LSEG, with earnings per share of $1.89 also exceedingly greater than initial Wall Street estimations ($1.51). Alongside its maiden stock buyback worth a staggering $70bn and the first-ever dividend payout at 20 cents per share due to be sent on June 17, Alphabet’s board have announced future quarterly cash dividends as part of their new capital return policy. This was well received by Barclays analysts who maintained an overweight rating for Alphabet stock and raised the price target from $173 to $200 in a Thursday note praising Google’s blend between efficient operations, growth acceleration and investments, branding this ‘proving naysayers wrong’. Oppenheimer also highlighted that despite significant AI spending by Alphabet, their advertising business is still growing at an impressive rate. Morgan Stanley analysts similarly commended the company’s core durability for growth as well as its early success in streamlining costs with a maintained overweight rating and raised price target of $195 from $165 respectively. Multiple other firms also increased their respective Alphabet stock price targets, including JPMorgan at $200 versus $165 earlier on while Evercore ISI has bumped up to an equivalent of $200 vs. Earlier’s target level of $160 – CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting for this article.