Google parent Alphabet announces first-ever dividend, shares soar

NEW YORK — Alphabet announced its first-ever dividend on April 25 and a US$70 billion (S$95 billion) stock buyback, cheering investors who sent the stock surging nearly 16 per cent after the bell.

The Google parent is returning capital while spending billions of dollars on data centres to catch up with rivals on generative artificial intelligence (AI). The dividend will be 20 cents per share.

Just three months ago, Alphabet's Big Tech rival, Meta Platforms, announced its own first-ever dividend, a move that lifted the social media company's stock market value by US$196 billion the following day. Amazon remains the lone holdout among Big Tech firms not offering a dividend.

Alphabet beat expectations for the quarter in sales, profit and advertising — metrics that are all closely watched.

"Alphabet's announced dividend payouts and buybacks on top of the solid earnings beat are not only a breath of fresh air for the tech market as a whole, but also a very intelligent strategy for the search engine giant going into a tough time of the year," said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com.

Alphabet's after-hours share surge of nearly 16 per cent following the report increased its stock market value by about US$300 billion to over US$2 trillion.

In a call to discuss results, Alphabet chief executive officer Sundar Pichai touted Google's AI offerings as a boon to its core search results. "We are encouraged that we are seeing an increase in search usage among people who are using the AI overviews," he said.

Revenue was US$80.54 billion for the quarter ended March 31, compared with estimates of US$78.59 billion, according to London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) data.

The search firm's beat on first-quarter revenue was powered by rising demand for its cloud services on the back of increasing adoption of artificial intelligence and steady advertising spending.

Google reported advertising sales rose 13 per cent in the quarter to US$61.7 billion. That compares with the average estimate of US$60.2 billion, according to LSEG data.

Alphabet is coming off a fourth quarter in which ad sales missed the mark, sending shares tumbling, amid rising competition from Amazon, Facebook and new entrants like TikTok. The latter faces an uncertain future after US President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban the popular app if it is not sold within the next nine to 12 months.

Meanwhile, Google Cloud revenue grew 28 per cent in the first quarter, boosted by a boom in generative AI tools that rely on cloud services to deliver the technology to customers.

Alphabet's capital expenditures were US$12 billion, a 91 per cent rise from a year prior, a figure Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Hanna Howard called "higher than anticipated".

Still, Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat said on the call with analysts that she expects such expenditures to be at that level or higher throughout the remainder of 2024, as the company spends to build artificial-intelligence offerings.

Despite the surge in capital expenditures, Porat said operating margin in 2024 would be higher than 2023, without elaborating.

Google's cloud services are attractive for venture capital-backed start-ups developing generative AI technologies due to their pricing and ease of integration with other tools, investors and experts have previously said.

Google has touted its AI-powered chatbot, Gemini, as a panacea for automation, from coding to document creation. The software was widely criticised, however, after it was found to generate historically inaccurate images, including those of former US leaders and World War II-era German soldiers.

Google has said it is aware of the issues and is working to address them.

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