Alphabet blames strong US dollar for earnings miss as shares sink

Investors went into Alphabet’s first-quarter earnings with high expectations, and the company fell short.

Shares for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, sunk more than 6% in after-hours trading today (April 21) after releasing its results. The company reported profit of $5.25 billion, or $7.50 a share, far below the $5.54 billion, or $7.96 a share, that analysts were expecting. Alphabet attributed the miss in part to the strong US dollar.

Total revenue increased 17% year-over-year to $20.26 billion. Revenue for the Google segment, which includes the search engine, YouTube, Android, and other properties, increased 17% to $20.09 billion. While Alphabet’s “other bets”—including Nest thermostats, Google’s investing arms, Google X, and life sciences divisions—doubled in revenue year-over-year to $166 million, operating losses widened 3% to $802 million.

Chief financial officer Ruth Porat noted that most of these other bets have yet to generate revenue. “Because other bets’ results aggregate the revenues and expenses from a number of businesses, operating and different industries there is likely to be lumpiness in the reported results,” she said. “We continued to invest across these opportunities [but] doing so in a disciplined way.”