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Apple, Alphabet, Amazon Reported Results. Here’s How They Fared: DealBook Briefing

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Credit Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

A tale of three tech companies earnings.

Apple reported record profit and sales, Amazon easily beat expectations, and Google-parent Alphabet posted a loss because of the new tax law.

Here’s a look at the numbers:

Apple

• $20.1 billion — Apple’s profit during the quarter, up 12 percent.

• $88.3 billion — Apple’s revenue for the quarter.

• $61.6 billion — Revenue from iPhone sales, up 13 percent from a year earlier.

• 77.3 million — The number of iPhones that Apple sold in the quarter, down 1 percent and below the 80.2 million analysts expected, according to Bloomberg.

• $796 -- The average sale price of an iPhone, according to Bloomberg.

• $60 billion to $62 billion — Apple's revenue guidance for the current quarter, well below analysts’ expectations of $65.9 billion.

• $285 billion — Apple’s big cash pile.

Critics Corner

Robert Cryan of Breakingviews:

“Apple has long followed Mies van der Rohe’s design precept that “less is more.” Now it’s doing the same financially. The company sold fewer iPhones for more money in the last quarter, it reported on Thursday. That raises fears that the company is losing its innovation edge. But that’s OK – persuading customers to pay more arguably requires as much genius as getting people to adopt the technology in the first place.”

Amazon

• $1.9 billion —the e-commerce giant’s fourth-quarter profit, more than double its profit from a year ago and the first time Amazon’s earnings have surpassed $1 billion in a quarter.

• $789 million —The boost to Amazon’s bottom line from a one-time tax benefit.

• $60.5 billion — Amazon’s revenue in the quarter, up 38 percent and above analysts’ estimates of $59.8 billion.

Critics corner

Robert Cryan of Breakingviews:

Amazon.com is going gangbusters. But some of the nearly $700 billion internet retailer’s fastest-expanding – and most profitable – businesses could be ones that irritate users. Over time, that could sully the company’s image.

Alphabet

• $3.02 billion — The loss Alphabet reported for the fourth quarter.

• $9.9 billion — The hit Alphabet took to its earnings related to the new tax law.

• $32.32 billion — The search giant’s revenue for the quarter, up 27 percent from same period a year ago.

Critics corner

Jennifer Saba of Breakingviews:

Alphabet is stuck at the letter G. The holding company of Google was created to safeguard against conventionality and let moonshot ideas, like self-driving cars, flourish. Almost three years in, it’s basically still just Google. Which means, in turn, that the A in Alphabet stands mainly for advertising.

It wouldn’t hurt Alphabet to put more energy into revenue sources that don’t start with a G.