Why Alphabet Shares Are Rising Today

Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL is trading higher Wednesday morning after the company reported its fourth-quarter financial results and announced a stock split. 

Alphabet reported quarterly earnings of $30.69 per share, which beat the $27.48 estimate. The company reported quarterly revenue of $75.33 billion, which beat the estimate of $72.13 billion. 

Related Link: Alphabet Q4 Earnings Takeaways: Revenue Beat, 20-For-1 Stock Split, Record Pixel Phone Sales

"Our deep investment in AI technologies continues to drive extraordinary and helpful experiences for people and businesses, across our most important products," said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet.

Pichai continued, "Q4 saw ongoing strong growth in our advertising business, which helped millions of businesses thrive and find new customers, a quarterly sales record for our Pixel phones despite supply constraints, and our Cloud business continuing to grow strongly."

Search revenue totaled $43.3 billion, YouTube ads brought in $8.6 billion and Google Cloud revenue reached $5.5 billion in the quarter.

Alphabet also declared a 20-for-1 stock split in the form of a one-time special stock dividend for each of the company’s Class A, Class B and Class C shares. Stockholders of record at the close of business on July 1 will receive 19 additional shares after the close of business on July 15.

• Keybanc analyst Justin Patterson maintained Alphabet with an Overweight rating and raised the price target from $3090 to $3400.

GOOG Price Action: Alphabet has traded as low as $1,850.93 over a 52-week period. It's making new 52-week highs Wednesday.

THe stock was up 11% at $3,060 at time of publication.

Photo: Pexels from Pixabay.