Alphabet's board of directors approved this Thursday the start of a cash dividend program and declared a first dividend of $0.20 per share, which will be paid on June 17, 2024, according to what the company reported to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). “The company intends to pay quarterly cash dividends in the future, subject to review and approval by the company's Board of Directors in its sole discretion,” it adds. Additionally, the board has approved repurchasing up to an additional $70 billion of its shares. Alphabet's price has skyrocketed after the announcement and is up more than 12%.
Alphabet thus joins Meta, the Facebook group, which announced last quarter that it began paying a dividend. The company made the announcement when presenting its first quarter results. Revenues have grown by 15%, to $80,539 million, and profits have soared by 57%, to $23,662 million.
The group has increased revenues strongly in all its main businesses. Advertising revenues increase 13%, to $61,659 million. The cloud business accelerates and grows 28%, up to 9,574 million. At the same time, it has reduced its workforce by about 10,000 people in one year, after the first major layoff plan of the company run by Sundar Pichai. At the end of the first quarter it had 180,895 employees.
The rise in the stock market represents a revaluation of more than 200,000 million dollars that allows the company to surpass the two trillion mark. Excluding this rise outside normal trading hours, Google shares have appreciated 13% so far this year and 51% in the last 12 months.
“Our first quarter results reflect strong performance from Search, YouTube and Cloud,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO, in a statement. “We are well underway in our Gemini era and there is great momentum across the company. “Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure, and our global product footprint, position us well for the next wave of AI innovation,” he added.
For her part, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said: “Our strong first quarter financial results reflect the strength of revenue across the company and ongoing efforts to sustainably redesign our cost base. We achieved revenue of $80.5 billion, up 15% year-over-year, and operating margin expansion.”
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