Investing

This Is How Much Money Alphabet Makes Every Minute

Trey Thoelcke

Published: April 2, 2024 8:35 am

The one-time search engine startup has grown into colossal technology conglomerate Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Its subsidiaries include Google, YouTube, Fitbit, Waze, Waymo, DoubleClick, Nest, and many others. The company’s market capitalization is around $1.8 trillion. And its stock is one of the so-called Magnificent Seven that have been driving the stock market for the past year or so.

The question here is how much money Amazon makes every minute. Let’s take a look.

How Does Alphabet Make Its Money?

This multinational technology conglomerate is headquartered in Silicon Valley and is one of the world’s most valuable companies. It was incorporated as Google (the name of its primary product at the time, an innovative internet search engine) in 1998. The company went public in 2004, and in 2015 it restructured and was renamed Alphabet.

Most of Alphabet’s revenue (about 57%) still comes from its Google search engine and digital advertising business. Other significant revenue generators include cloud computing and data analytics (11%), other ventures and products (11%), and YouTube advertising (10%).

Here is a look at annual revenue and revenue per minute for the past five years:

How Much Does Alphabet Really Make?

Revenue is not the full picture, of course. Net income, also called profits or earnings, is what is left after expenses such as cost of goods sold, taxes, and interest are subtracted. In other words, it is the bottom line (of the income statement), as opposed to revenue, the top line.

As Alphabet’s top line has grown, so too have its operating expenses. At the end of 2019, quarterly operating expenses totaled about $7.03 billion. That has climbed to $23.10 billion most recently, though the rate of growth has slowed in recent quarters. So how has that affected the bottom line?

Here is a look at annual net income and net income per minute for the past five years:

How Has Alphabet Stock Fared?

Alphabet class A shares ended 2014 more than 5% lower at $26.53 (split-adjusted). That was the year when management split its stock into class A and class C shares. Since then, the stock is up about 486% to above $155 apiece. That is a bit higher than the pandemic peak, and the stock just hit an all-time high is $155.74.

The consensus price target of $163.12 indicates that analysts anticipate the share price will increase almost 6% in the next 12 months. Note that the high price target is $180, and all but five of the 43 analysts who follow the stock recommend buying shares. (Here is an Alphabet stock price prediction for 2030, bull, base, & bear forecasts.)