Alphabet Q3 Profit Beats Estimates, Shares Gain

Shares of

jumped over 8 percent in after-hours trading after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter on Thursday. The Mountain View, California-based company posted quarterly net income of $3.98 billion, or $5.73 per share, compared to $2.74 billion, or $3.98 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding one-time items, Alphabet's earnings came in at $7.35 per share. Its revenue climbed to $18.68 billion from $16.52 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $7.21 per share on revenue of $18.54 billion. The average estimate among 366 Estimize users was for earnings of $7.33 per share and revenue of $15.19 billion. Its operating expenses (other than the cost of revenue) climbed to $6.93 billion from $6.1 billion. Advertising revenue surged 13 percent to $16.78 billion. The number of total paid clicks surged 23 percent for the latest quarter. The company's board authorized a repurchase of up to $5.09 billion of its Class C stock. "Our Q3 results show the strength of Google's business, particularly in mobile search. With six products now having more than 1 billion users globally, we're excited about the opportunities ahead of Google, and across Alphabet," said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google. Alphabet shares climbed 8.86 percent to $741.48 in the after-hours trading session.