Major tech companies released their quarterly earnings this week and stock prices shot up.
Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft were below expectations, though not disastrous. Amazon and Apple, however, boosted investor confidence.
Though Alphabet’s report was lower than expected, the stock still gained after the news broke. Alphabet’s second quarter revenue was $69.69 billion, and the net income was $16 billion. Analysts had predicted a revenue of $69.87 billion.
Year to date, Alphabet’s stock has fallen 28%.
Microsoft expected $52.4 billion in revenue yet earned $51.9 billion. After the announcement, shares in Microsoft were down 1%.
Microsoft blamed several factors for its poor performance, including the war in Ukraine, continuing COVID shutdowns in China, and decreased revenue from advertisers.
In early July, Microsoft announced that it was slowing the hiring process and laying off 1% of employees to prepare for a potential economic recession.
Microsoft’s shares have declined 22% since the beginning of this year.
Apple performed well, beating expectations in both sales and earnings. The computer maker generated $83 billion in sales, surpassing the prediction of $82.7 billion. Its stock was up 3.1%.
iPhone sales were up 3% from last year, however Mac computer sales were 10% lower than last year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a call that the supply-chain issues had not affected their production as much as expected but still affected iPad and Mac sales. “The Street was waiting for any signs of demand issues from Apple and instead got the opposite,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.
Amazon also exceeded expectations, though not as significantly as Apple. Sales at Amazon increased 7% this quarter. Amazon’s shares increased 11% on Friday.
Amazon’s operating income was $3.3 billion this quarter, meeting the company’s goal of $1 to 3 billion.
