YouTube ad revenue climbs 4% as parent Alphabet smashes Wall Street Q2 estimates

YouTube posted 4% advertising revenue growth in the second quarter as parent Alphabet rode momentum in search and cloud services to smash Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

The tech giant reported diluted earnings per share of $1.44 and total revenue of $74.6 billion, compared with consensus forecasts for $1.20 and $65.4 billion, respectively. YouTube’s ad take came to $7.665 billion. The video giant changed leadership earlier this year, with Susan Wojcicki stepping down after 9 years as CEO and passing the baton to veteran exec Neil Mohan.

The upbeat quarterly report reverses more discouraging results of late, including an unprecedented dip in ad results at YouTube, which was seen as an ominous portent for other players navigating a choppy ad market. Total ad revenue had slipped in the two previous quarters, a rare slump for a dominant force in the ad arena.

“There’s exciting momentum across our products and the company,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in the earnings release. “Our continued leadership in AI and our excellence in engineering and innovation are driving the next evolution of Search, and improving all our services.” He noted that the company has 15 products with at least 500 million users and six of them reaching 2 billion-plus users, giving Alphabet “so many opportunities to deliver on our mission.”

CFO Ruth Porat credited “continued resilience in search” and accelerating revenue there and at YouTube, plus momentum in the company’s cloud business.

Along with the numbers, Alphabet announced that Porat will shift to the new executive role of president and Chief Investment Officer. She had been CFO for eight years.

Shares in Alphabet raced toward $131, up more than 6% in after-hours trading on the earnings news. They have recovered in recent months to approach the record levels where they traded in the fourth quarter of 2021. Deadline