The Big 4 tech companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google — blew past Wall Street estimates in their latest-quarter earnings reports
- Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook reported their third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
- These four, along with Microsoft, are the five most valuable publicly traded companies on the S&P 500.
- The companies exceeded Wall Street estimates, maintaining strong momentum that boosted revenues in the previous quarter as online business boomed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Google and Amazon crushed expectations, while Facebook and Apple squeezed by with earnings just slightly higher than Wall Street predicted.
- The earnings were reported as the tech companies were under unprecedented scrutiny from US lawmakers and regulators over their market dominance.
Alphabet
Google parent company Alphabet reported revenue of $46.17 billion, an increase of roughly 14% year over year. The revenue beat Wall Street estimates, closing what CEO Sundar Pichai called "a strong quarter, consistent with the broader online environment." The search giant's stock soared by at least 5% in after-hours trading.
- Revenue: $46.17 billion ($42.88 billion expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- Earnings per share (GAAP): $16.40 ($11.21 expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- Net income: $11.25 billion
- Google Cloud revenue: $3.44 billion
- YouTube ad revenue: $5.03 billion
Facebook reported moderate growth, inching past Wall Street estimates for daily active users and reporting 22% revenue growth year over year. However, daily active users and monthly active users in the US and Canada declined slightly since the second quarter, which Facebook attributed to changes in browsing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook stock was slightly down on Thursday after the close of trading.
- Revenue: $21.47 billion ($19.82 billion expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- Earnings per share (EPS) GAAP: $2.71 ($1.91 expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- Daily active Facebook users: 1.82 billion (1.79 billion expected, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet)
- Monthly active Facebook users: 2.74 billion (2.5 expected, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet)
Apple
Apple slightly exceeded Wall Street estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter, powered by international sales, which accounted for 59% of the company's revenue during the quarter. Apple's stock fell in after-hours trading as iPhone sales continued their decline. The company's new iPhone 12, which is expected to kick off an upgrade "supercycle" and bring its iPhone business back to growth, was released later than usual this year, and sales numbers won't be reported until next quarter.
- Revenue: $64.7 billion ($63.7 billion expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- EPS (GAAP): $0.73 ($0.70 expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- iPhone revenue: $26.4 billion
- Services revenue: $14.5 billion
- Wearables revenue: $7.8 billion
Amazon
Amazon blew past Wall Street estimates, with $96.1 billion in revenue and sales growth of 37%. Amazon stock was up by as much as 2% in after-hours trading. Its revenue was powered by its Amazon Web Services sales of $11.6 billion for the quarter, up 29% year over year.
- Revenue: $96.1 billion ($92.7 billion expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- EPS (GAAP): $12.37 ($7.41 expected, according to analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance)
- AWS revenue: $11.6 billion