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Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

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Re: Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

#3

Also, Alphabet(GOOG) missed expectations. https://finance.yahoo.com/m/e866d713-3773-3b26-83ce-07bb214b...

Personal pet peeve: the map is not the territory. Alphabet didn't miss anything; the analysts mispredicted performance.

Re: Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

#4
post #3

Also, Alphabet(GOOG) missed expectations. https://finance.yahoo.com/m/e866d713-3773-3b26-83ce-07bb214b...

Personal pet peeve: the map is not the territory. Alphabet didn't miss anything; the analysts mispredicted performance.

>Alphabet didn't miss anything; the analysts mispredicted performance.

Taken to the extreme, no company ever underperforms and every unrealized expectation is the fault of the analysts.

Re: Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

#6
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal pet peeve: the map is not the territory. Alphabet didn't miss anything; the analysts mispredicted performance.

>Alphabet didn't miss anything; the analysts mispredicted performance. Taken to the extreme, no company ever underperforms and every unrealized expectation is the fault of the analysts.

False.

Most companies provide guidance. They under perform if they do worse than guidance.

Alphabet on the other hand does not provide guidance. And frankly it's quite silly to call 20+% growth a miss.

Re: Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

#7
Editorializing:

Paid clicks on Google properties +43% - "yaaay we're driving more paid search!"

Cost-per-click on Google properties -16% - "ouch our advertisers are seeing less value on these add'l clicks!"

To me the second part of this is going to be most interesting to watch - if the clicks they are onboarding are lower quality, this is going to be a net negative.

Re: Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

#8
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Alphabet didn't miss anything; the analysts mispredicted performance. Taken to the extreme, no company ever underperforms and every unrealized expectation is the fault of the analysts.

False. Most companies provide guidance. They under perform if they do worse than guidance. Alphabet on the other hand does not provide guidance. And frankly it's quite silly to call 20+% growth a miss.

And yet in after-market trading the stock is down some 3%. I do think though it'd be cheaper for Google to find a way to diversify away from ads now that it's likely having more competition from the likes of Facebook and Snapchat but I'm no MBA nor an analyst so what do I know.

Re: Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

#9
post #7

Editorializing: Paid clicks on Google properties +43% - "yaaay we're driving more paid search!" Cost-per-click on Google properties -16% - "ouch our advertisers are seeing less value on these add'l clicks!" To me the second part of this is going to be most interesting to watch - if the clicks they are onboarding are lower quality, this is going to be a net negative.

costs could have been driven down by competition not so much by lack of demand or falling quality.

Re: Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2016 Results

#10
post #7

Editorializing: Paid clicks on Google properties +43% - "yaaay we're driving more paid search!" Cost-per-click on Google properties -16% - "ouch our advertisers are seeing less value on these add'l clicks!" To me the second part of this is going to be most interesting to watch - if the clicks they are onboarding are lower quality, this is going to be a net negative.

If the half of the world without an Internet connection gets online and starts clicking on ads, their clicks are probably going to be less valuable than the existing rich world clicks. I don't see how that is a net negative for anyone, though.
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