Google’s parent Alphabet (GOOG) announced a massive $70 billion stock buyback after reporting Q1 2022 results yesterday. Unfortunately those results did not give the market a lot of confidence as they came in below consensus analyst estimates driven in part by a slowdown in ad revenue at YouTube and a $1.07 billion loss on investments (equity securities). This overshadowed a 23% increase in revenue to $68 billion and a 22% increase in operating income to $20 billion. The stock, which was already down 3% in a weak market yesterday, is down another 3% today.
Alphabet is second only to Apple (AAPL) in announcing large buybacks and then following through on those announcements. This $70 billion announcement eclipses the $50 billion buyback they announced last April. Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms (FB) also announced a $50 billion buyback last October when the stock was trading at $328.69. It will be interesting to see if they increase their buyback allocation when they announce results after the market closes today.