Shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) surged +9.16 after-hours trading after the company posted record quarterly sales that exceeds expectations, thanks to customers utilizing Google search while shopping online and advertisers increasing their marketing budgets. The company has also announced that it would commence a 20-to-one stock split.
In the fourth quarter, Alphabet's sales increased by 32% to $75.3 billion, setting a new quarterly sales record and exceeding the average expectation of $72 billion among financial experts polled by Refinitiv. Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business office disclosed that consumers used Google to browse for garments and hobbyist items, while marketers in retail, finance, entertainment, and travel increased their marketing budgets.
Additionally, investors will receive 19 more shares for each one held as of July 1 under the proposed 20-for-one stock split. The stock will be more inexpensive and perhaps eligible for incorporation in additional market indexes as a result of the split, which is dependent on shareholder approval.
Furthermore, Alphabet's total sales for the whole year of 2021 increased by 41% to a new high of $258 billion. After advertisers cut expenditure in the first few weeks of the epidemic, sales grew at the weakest rate after a decade in 2020. Google's advertising business, which includes YouTube, accounted for 81 percent of Alphabet's income in both 2021 and 2020.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and Google, stated that the company's strong investment in AI technology continues to produce amazing and beneficial experiences for people and businesses across all of the company's major products. Despite supply restrictions, the company's advertising business continued to grow well in Q4, helping millions of businesses flourish and discover new customers. It also set a quarterly sales record for its Pixel phones, and its Cloud business continued to develop strongly.