Google’s parent Alphabet reported record results on Tuesday as the pandemic kept people at home, watching YouTube videos and clicking on web advertisements served up by the company.
It also announced a $50bn share buyback programme, helping send its shares up 4.5 per cent in after-hours trading. That gave the tech giant a market capitalisation above $1.6tn for the first time. Only Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are larger.
Gross revenue in the first three months of this year rose to $55.3bn, Alphabet said, up 34 per cent from $41.2bn and easily outstripping expectations of $51.6bn. Net profit rose 162 per cent to $17.9bn, versus a consensus of analysts’ forecasts of $10.5bn, as calculated by Visible Alpha.