The Pixel line enjoys its best quarter ever; Google profits soar as shares will split 20-1
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*Above image courtesy of David Urbanke.
Despite suffering from several bugs and an in-screen fingerprint scanner that users wish was faster, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro helped Google generate an "all-time quarterly sales record for Pixel," according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. The executive said, "This came in spite of an extremely challenging supply chain environment."
The Pixel 6 line is popular with carriers and consumers says Alphabet CEO Pichai
Pichai pointed out that the Pixel 6 line is popular with customers and Google's carrier partners. We'd love to give you a more precise comparison in terms of revenue or the number of units shipped, but alas, we can't. That is because Google parent Alphabet buries Pixel sales in a category called "Other" that had a 22% year-over-year gain to $8.2 billion for the quarter.
The fourth quarter of 2021 was the best quarter in Pixel history
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro take the Pixel line to another level. Whereas previous Pixel devices featured a great camera thanks to Google's processing prowess, this year the company added a 50MP sensor and the Telephoto camera (on the "Pro" model only) uses a periscope lens design to deliver 4x optical zoom and 20x hybrid zoom using the Super Res Zoom feature. The phones also have their own in-house Google Tensor chipset allowing company engineers to add more Google-type features that they couldn't in years past when the Pixels employed off-the-shelf Snapdragon chipsets.
Some of the new features include Magic Eraser which makes distractions disappear from photographs. Motion mode uses a long exposure to make the background "move" in photos, and Google Assistant will not only monitor your call when on hold, it also will deliver translations in real-time. Google's features might seem gimmicky to some but are designed to help users get things done.
It's time to grab the Google Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro
Alphabet reported its fourth quarter and year-end numbers for 2021. Search brought in $43.30 billion in revenue for the last three months of the year, a 36% gain from the year-ago figure of $31.90 billion. YouTube ads in the quarter amounted to $8.63 billion, up 25.3% from the $6.89 billion in revenue that YouTube ads brought in during Q4 of 2020.
Total advertising revenue weighed in at $61.24 billion, up 33% from the $46.20 billion the company reported during the same time last year. Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC), the amount of money that Google spent to get consumers to visit its sites, rose 28% from $10.47 billion to $13.43 billion on an annual basis. So in other words, Google spent $2.96 billion more during the quarter on an annual basis to take in an additional $15.04 billion during the quarter.
From October through December, Alphabet garnered revenue of $75.33 billion, up 33% year-over-year from the $56.90 billion it reported for last year's fourth quarter. For all of 2021, Alphabet's revenue was $257.64 billion, up 41% from 2020's figure of $182.53 billion.
Net income for the fourth quarter came to $20.64 billion (earnings per share of $30.69), up 36% from the $15.23 billion ($22.30 per share) Alphabet earned during Q4 of last year. For the entire year, the firm saw its net income rise a whopping 89% to $76.03 billion (or $112.20 per share) from 2020s $40.27 billion ($58.61 per share).
Alphabet announces a 20-1 stock split
Alphabet also announced a 20-1 stock split. In theory, a stock split is neutral because while you receive 20 shares for each one you own, the price of the stock is divided by 20. However, because the price of the stock declines, some non-professionals think the shares are a bargain and pick some up.
For example, let's say you own one share of Alphabet (GOOG) valued at $3,000. On the day the split is effective, you will now own 20 shares of the company priced at $150. The total value is the same $3,000.
The stock actually closed over $3,000 in after-hours trading thanks to the report. During regular trading, Alphabet rose $43.60 (or 1.61%) to a very ketchup-oriented price of $2,757,57. Once the report was released, all hell broke loose and the stock soared $252.98 (up 9.17%) to close at $3,010.55.
This is great news for Google employees, Google investors, and Google executives. But we have the sneaking suspicion that in Washington D.C., lawmakers are eyeing this report with knives and other sharp utensils at the ready, hoping to carve up Alphabet and its Google unit into smaller entities.
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