Google Q4 revenues of $32.3 billion beat expectations, but earnings disappoint

Google parent Alphabet Inc. announced financial results for the fourth quarter of 2017 and full year. The company reported $32.3 billion in quarterly revenue and $110.9 billion in full-year revenues. Revenue beat expectations by more than $400 million, but earnings per share of $9.70 missed Wall Street consensus estimates.

The company also reported taking a nearly $10 billion tax charge, which caused a roughly $3 billion loss in Q4. The company’s stock is down in after-hours trading.

Overall year-over-year revenue growth was 24 percent. Ad revenues were $27.2 billion, a more than $5 billion increase vs. a year ago. Traffic acquisition costs grew from 22 percent to 24 percent of ad revenue year over year.

Aggregate paid clicks were up a significant 43 percent and 18 percent sequentially. But CPCs were down 14 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

Google reported “other revenues” of $4.7 billion. This category includes some of the company’s hardware products (e.g., Pixel, Google Home). Sales for Google Home were estimated to have reached 40 percent of smart speaker sales over the holiday quarter. Analysts now estimate Google has sold a cumulative total of 14 million units in the US.

Alphabet posted Full-year revenues of $110.9 billion in 2017 compared with $90.3 billion for 2016. The company has more than $101 billion in cash and marketable securities on hand.

Google’s parent had more than 80,000 employees at the end of 2017 vs. roughly 72,000 a year ago.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.