After Google's parent company Alphabet beat Wall Street's expectations for its second quarter earnings yesterday, the stock shot up 5% in after hours trading, and has since leveled off.
Revenue was up 21% year over year and EPS exceeded estimates — $8.42 vs. the expected $8.03. The tech giant also upped its headcount to 66,575, which is a big leap from last year when the company totaled 57,148. All around, Alphabet had an exceptionally healthy Q2.
In more good news for Alphabet, the majority of analysts are bullish on the company. Here are some of the key takeaways from those who cover the stock:
Macquarie: BULLISH
Rating: Outperform
Price Target: $975
Comment: "The drivers and the results were quite similar to Q1, as mobile, YouTube, and programmatic drove top line outperformance and better than expected cost controls helped bottom line outperformance. U.S. and overall FX-adj y/y rev growth of 25%, respectively, were the best in five years. How many other almost $100b revenue companies are accelerating growth rates to their strongest level in years?"
Nomura: BULLISH
Rating: Buy
Price Target: $925
Comment: "Acceleration in Sites revenue owing to strength in mobile search, coupled with disciplined expense management, drove beats on the top and bottom lines. Alphabet's 2Q results support our thesis that the vast majority of incremental growth in internet advertising should continue to accrue to the largest platforms."
Piper Jaffrey: BULLISH
Rating: Overweight
Price Target: $930
Comment: "The report reaffirmed our view from last quarter that the Q1 underperformance was a temporary event and that the core business was healthy. Mobile continued to drive the biggest part of revenue growth and, while we are annualizing some beneficial ad format changes from Q315, the company is implementing some new text formats that could provide a new boost to revenue."
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