Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
- Alphabet shares slid 6% Wednesday.
- The losses came after the Google owner posted earnings for the last three months of 2023.
- Disappointing ad revenue is dragging on Alphabet stock ahead of the opening bell, say analysts.
Shares in Alphabet fell Wednesday as investors reacted to an earnings report that showed advertising revenues falling short of Wall Street's expectations for the Google owner.
The stock was down 6% shortly after the opening bell — a decline that wiped about $110 billion off its market capitalization, per Business Insider's calculations.
Alphabet's losses came after it posted earnings for the final three months of 2023 on Tuesday.
Its profits of $1.64 per share and revenue of $86.3 billion came in ahead of analysts' expectations, according to a Refinitiv poll, but advertising revenues of $65.5 billion fell just short of the $66 billion figure Wall Street had been forecasting.
CEO Sundar Pichai touted Alphabet's AI efforts.
The company launched its ChatGPT rival Gemini in December and laid off thousands of employees earlier this month in a bid to refocus its business model around the tech.
Tuesday's results showed revenues for its Google Cloud division climbed 26% year-on-year to a better-than-expected $9.2 billion for the three months to December 31.
"We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud," Pichai said. "Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come."
However, advertising still makes up 80% of Alphabet's total income, so weaker-than-expected growth there is spooking shareholders, analysts said.
"Ad revenue was weaker than expected, and at heart, Google is considered an advertising company with ambitions to move into the AI space," Kathleen Brooks of online brokerage XTB said in a note Wednesday.
"This is why the share price tanked after the results were announced, as the market does not have much patience for earnings misses from big tech firms," she added.
Alphabet stock is still up more than 50% over the past 12 months, however, and closed Tuesday at $153.