Alphabet late Tuesday reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter results, driven by strength in the Google parent's advertising and cloud operations. Per-share earnings rose to $2.12 for the September quarter from $1.55 a year earlier, compared with the consensus among analysts on Capital IQ for $1.85.
Revenue advanced 15% to $88.27 billion, ahead of Wall Street's view of $86.22 billion. Class A and C shares of Alphabet were up more than 4% each in after-hours trade. Google services revenue increased to $76.51 billion from $67.99 billion, driven by a jump in advertising to $65.85 billion from $59.65 billion.
Search and YouTube ad sales climbed year-over-year while that for Google network slipped. Revenue in the Google cloud segment rose to $11.35 billion from $8.41 billion. "In cloud, our (artificial intelligence) solutions are helping drive deeper product adoption with existing customers, attract new customers and win larger deals," Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement.
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