Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG) stock is closing out the week's trading with another round of solid gains. The company's share price was up 1.6% as of 3:20 p.m. ET Friday and had been up as much as 4.3% earlier in the session.
Alphabet published its first-quarter results after the market closed yesterday and delivered sales and earnings for the period that came in ahead of the average Wall Street targets. The business posted non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share of $2.81 on sales of $90.23 billion, topping the average analyst estimate's call for per share earnings of $2.01 on revenue of $89.15 billion.
Alphabet stock rises on strong Q1 results
Alphabet reported a substantial sales beat in the first quarter, with stronger-than-expected performance for the advertising business helping to offset a small shortfall in sales from the company's Google Cloud infrastructure services business. Artificial intelligence (AI) services helped push ads revenue up to $66.8 billion, topping Wall Street's call for sales of $66.4 billion. And despite sales of $12.26 billion for Google Cloud falling slightly short of Wall Street's forecast, the unit still grew 28% year over year in the period. Alphabet's beat on profitability was even more impressive.
What's next for Alphabet?
Along with strong first-quarter results, Alphabet's management delivered reassurances that the company's business can continue to be resilient in the face of macroeconomic challenges and regulatory pressures that might eventually result in some of its business units being spun off. The company's big first-quarter earnings beat delivered encouraging signs of operational efficiency. With sales performance for the period also coming in significantly better than anticipated, Alphabet is showing that its growth engine remains strong and is seeing tangible benefits from AI.
Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?
Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $591,533!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $652,319!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 859% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 158% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of April 21, 2025
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
