Tag Archives: Company Earnings

Microsoft’s profits skyrocketed by 47 percent in Q4

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Microsoft's business continues to thrive thanks to its leadership in cloud computing and productivity apps. In its Q4 earnings report today, the company reported a 21 percent increase in revenues compared to last year, reaching $46.2 billion. But even more impressive, its profits jumped by 47 percent to reach $16.5 billion. Microsoft's success is practically a broken record by this point — last quarter it saw a 44 percent increase in profit, and before that it grew by 33 percent — but it's still managing to beat the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

The key to Microsoft's growth is the same as it has been for the past several years. Its Intelligent Cloud business is seemingly unstoppable, growing by 30 percent compared to last year. And it's still seeing plenty of growth with Office, Linkedin and its other business apps, which together have increased revenues by 25 percent. Even its More Personal Computing group, which includes Windows and Xbox, saw its business improve by 9 percent. (Thatcategory saw a few dips in the quarter though: Surface business fell by 20 percent, and Xbox content and services saw a 4 percent drop.)

Microsoft's Q4 earnings aren't really telling us anything new, as the company's entire 2021 fiscal year has been strong. The company reported an overall revenue increase of 18 percent for 2021 ($168.1 billion), as well as a 38 percent jump in profit for the year ($61.3 billion). Microsoft's previous earnings report proved that it made out well during the pandemic, but now it seems like those gains aren't stopping anytime soon. 

Google parent Alphabet made a whopping $61.9 billion last quarter

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After several quarters of continuallygrowingrevenue, Google's parent company Alphabet announced today that it made $61.9 billion in Q2 2021. That's a jump of 62 percent from the same period last year, when the organization's revenue dipped due to the onset of the pandemic. Last quarter, Alphabet posted $55.3 billion in revenue. Clearly, the company has long recovered from the slump it faced from the pandemic last year. Like chief financial officer Ruth Porat said on an earnings call, its results are "lapping the impact of COVID on our business." 

Like it did last quarter, Alphabet's net income rose significantly, from about $7 billion in Q2 2020 to $18.5 billion in the same period this year. Most of its money continues to come from advertising and search, while Google Cloud and its "Other Bets" division saw modest revenue growth as well. 

CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement that "a rising tide of online activity in many parts of the world" and "long-term investments in AI and Google Cloud" drove the results. Pichai also said on the company's earnings call that it set "a number of records this quarter." Publisher partners earned more than ever from Google's network, he said, and Alphabet has paid more to its YouTube creators and partners than any quarter in history.

Pichai also shouted out recent developments in AI across Google's portfolio, including the upcoming Android 12, updated conversation technology LaMDA and more. He also emphasized Google Cloud, detailing developments in security solutions and Workspace, including the new Smart Canvas that it showed off at Google I/O. 

In addition, Pichai said YouTube Shorts (its TikTok-like feature) broke a new record by surpassing 15 billion daily views. YouTube subscriptions across things like Premium and Music also continue to grow. He also gave an update on self-driving vehicle company Waymo, which first launched its services to the public in October 2020. Since then, it's "served thousands of rides without a human driver," he said. 

Of course, since the bulk of Alphabet's money comes from advertising, much of the earnings call dwelled on how retailers used Google's product to market their services to consumers. Chief business officer Philipp Schindler also spent some time talking about YouTube's reach, and how it's able to reach an audience that traditional TV and broadcast networks don't. 

Though the company's Other Bets division, which covers its hardware products, cost a lot more money than it made this quarter, it's possible some of those investments will pay off in the months to come, since Google typically launches new phones in the fall. Porat closed the call with some statements on outlook, saying, "We believe it's still too early to forecast the longer term trends as markets reopen, especially given the recent increase in COVID cases globally." While it's not guaranteed to continue posting super strong results for the quarters to come, we're sure Alphabet is going to be okay.