GOOGL: Alphabet Stock to Cross $2 Trillion After Solid Earnings Report Adds 12% to Valuation

More than $200 billion are waiting at the opening bell as investors cheer robust growth in the first quarter.

• Alphabet stock GOOGL is on track to crack a new record high, crossing the $2 trillion mark when the opening bell rings Friday. Investors cheered a better-than-expected earnings report by the search giant and injected more than $200 billion in extended trading Thursday. The rush lifted shares by more than 12% ahead of Friday’s regular session. Here’s what happened.
• The parent of Google released blockbuster earnings figures and, for the first time ever, said it will start paying out a quarterly dividend of 20 cents a share. The company brought in $80.5 billion in revenue and earned $1.89 per share. Both results topped analysts’ estimates and marked growth of 15% and 57%, respectively, from the same quarter last year. Net income arrived at $23.6 billion, up from $15 billion.
• Broken down among segments and products, YouTube advertising revenue hit $8 billion (yes, that’s all the unskippable ads before your cooking video) and Google Cloud sales landed at just under $10 billion. Shares of Alphabet are up a modest 13% on the year, but today’s leap will position the tech giant right next to Microsoft MSFT, Apple AAPL, and Nvidia NVDA as the fourth company to sit on $2 trillion in valuation.