Alphabet’s just-released Q4 earnings has seen its stock price rise in after hours trading, resulting in the Mountain View-based company passing Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. The company’s market capitalization was $517.6 billion at close, and while the price is still fluctuating after hours, Alphabet’s market cap will be over $540 billion tomorrow if these prices hold…
At market’s close, GOOG Class C stock was trading at $752, but immediately shot up to $813, an 8% jump. It is currently trading just shy of $800. Apple has held the title of most valuable company in the world since overtaking Exxon Mobil in 2011. In the weeks leading up to earnings season, however, many speculated that Alphabet could take the mantle with strong earnings.
When the markets closed today, Google had $517.6 billion market capitalization while Apple was at $538.7 billion. With the after hours valuation of more than 540 billion, though, this marks the first time since 2010 that Google has passed Apple in market cap.
In its Q4 2015 fiscal report, the company reported revenue of $21.3 billion, up 18%. Net income for Q4 2015 was $3.97 billion. Of its total revenue, advertising consisted of right about $16.3 billion, with Google’s own websites accounting for about $12.4 billion. Advertising revenue is up 17 percent year over year, while that of Google’s own sites are up 20 percent year over year. Aggregate paid clicks rose 31 percent year over year, while cost-per-click rates fell 13 percent compared to Q4 of 2014.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai also noted during Alphabet’s earnings call that Gmail now has more than 1 billion active monthly users.
As part of the Alphabet reorganization, the company now reports earnings from the core Google business and its “Other Bet” companies. To learn more about the company’s earnings check out the livestream of the call happening now.
