Shares of Alphabet (GOOG -1.10%) (GOOGL -1.23%) are down several percent today following the tech company's second-quarter earnings report. But don't let the pullback in Alphabet shares (small-f) fool you. The online search giant is firing on all cylinders.
Sure, the $2.7 billion European Commission fine paid during the quarter reduced Alphabet's operating income by 40%. Further, the fine could foreshadow some changes in the way Europe regulates Alphabet's display ads and, ultimately, reduce its revenue in this important market. But when investors look beyond this headwind, they'll find a dominant, profitable business that continued to thrive during the second quarter.
Image source: Google.
Besides Alphabet's headline-grabbing $2.7 billion fine during the quarter, here are five other key metrics investors shouldn't overlook.
1. Advertising revenue is up 18% year over year. Representing 87% of Alphabet's $26 billion of revenue during the quarter, revenue from Google ads continued to grow rapidly, highlighting the health of Alphabet's core segment.
2. Google's paid clicks were up 52% year over year. Defined as the number of clicks on Google properties and Google Network Members' properties that advertisers had to pay for during the quarter, paid clicks rose sharply. But this huge increase was offset a bit by a slight decrease in the amount of revenue advertisers paid Alphabet per click. The average cost-per-click was down 23% year over year.
As was the case in Q1, the key drivers behind Alphabet's advertising revenue growth were mobile search and YouTube, management said. Alphabet's cloud business continued to be a rising star for the company. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said cloud deals larger than $500,000 tripled year over year.
3. Alphabet's "other" Google revenue soared 42% year over year. Not to be confused with Alphabets "other bets," which represent only 1% of revenue and are very unpredictable revenue sources, other revenue now represents 12% of Alphabet's total revenue, up from 10% in the year-ago quarter. The growth was primarily driven by the Android app store, Google-branded hardware, and cloud services.
Google Home smart speaker. Image source: Google.
4. Alphabet's operating loss from its other-bets segment narrowed to $772 million. Including Alphabet's smaller "moonshot" businesses, such as Nest, Verily, Fiber, and Waymo, other-bets revenue increased from $185 million in the year-ago quarter to $248 million in the second quarter of 2017. Meanwhile, Alphabet's operating loss improved by $83 million sequentially and year over year.
5. Alphabet's total revenue increased 21% year over year. With its 18% year-over-year growth in advertising, a sharp rise in other Google revenue, and improving performance of Alphabet's more speculative other-bets segment, Alphabet looks as strong as ever. And perhaps even more telling, Alphabet's overall revenue was up 23% year over year when adjusting for currency headwinds.
As Alphabet's underlying business highlights strong growth from both the search giant's core business, as well as from its increasingly important Android app store, cloud, and hardware businesses, investors may want to consider using this slight pullback in Alphabet's stock price as an opportunity to buy into this enduring market leader.
