Alphabet answered Wall Street's call and reported its best earnings since 2009.
Google's parent company earned $26 million in ad revenue in the first quarter, up from $21 million this time last year. It also revealed a $3 billion stake in the ride-hailing company Uber, in addition to other investments.
Alphabet was the first major tech company to report earnings since mounting concern over data privacy reached a peak after Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal.
In a call with investors on Monday, the Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that potential new privacy regulations won't impact the company because it requires "very limited information" from its users to be able to generate revenue from its ad business.
"There is a lot of sound and fury without much actually happening that's going to change the earnings power of these companies and the valuation" said Jason Ware, the chief investment officer and chief economist at Albion Financial Group.
But it's not all sunshine and rainbows for Alphabet. The stock was down more than 2 percent on Tuesday morning, signaling that investors may be cooling on their beloved FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google).
Scott Kessler, the director of equity research and an analyst at CFRA, said investors should remember that Google has $100 billion in cash at its disposal. The company may give out buy-backs, or use it to make key investments, said Kessler.
Alphabet reported revenue of more than $31 billion and earnings per share of $13.33. Its "other bets" category saw revenue of $150 million.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/alphabet-answers-wall-streets-call).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
