Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) second-quarter profit exceeded Wall Street expectations on Tuesday and the Google parent announced that its long-time CFO, Ruth Porat, would assume a new role while the company sought a new finance chief.
Alphabet’s results were helped by steady demand for its cloud services and a rebound in advertising. The shares jumped 8% in after-hours trading. Shares of rival Microsoft (MSFT.O) were down slightly after it also reported results on Tuesday, while shares of Meta Platforms (META.O), a company also highly dependent on ad sales, rose as much as 2%.
“Not only did Google deliver fantastic earnings per share, exceeding expectations at a time when investors were questioning its ability to keep up with other tech giants amid the AI frenzy, it also did so by a considerable margin,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com. “This strongly indicates that a new growth phase for the giant is likely under way.”
He added, “Google has finally consolidated itself as a leading force in the highly-disputed cloud sector and now has room to focus its expansion in the AI field.”
