Top NASDAQ stocks Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) made big moves in opposite directions after their earnings reports were released overnight.
Both companies released their latest quarterly reports after the closing bell on Tuesday.
Let's review the results and what happened to each company's stock price in after-hours trading.
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NASDAQ stocks make big moves in after-hours trading
Microsoft share price surges 5%
Bloomberg reported that the Microsoft share price soared by more than 5% in after-hours trading after the company beat analysts' forecasts for first-quarter revenue.
In its 1Q FY24 report, Microsoft reported revenue of $US56.5 billion in the September quarter, up 13% over 12 months, and net income of $US22.3 billion, up 27%.
Surging revenue in Microsoft's cloud computing and office software businesses, along with a slower pace of growth in operating expenses, contributed to the strong quarterly results.
Diluted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $US2.99 per share, up 27%. This was above market analysts' expectations of $US2.65 per share.
Microsoft broke down its revenue growth across product categories, with the top three being Azure and other cloud services, up 29%, Dynamics 365, up 28%, and Microsoft Cloud, up 24%.
Microsoft CEO and chair Satya Nadella said:
With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere.
We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.
According to CNBC, Amy Hood, Microsoft's finance chief, provided 2Q FY24 revenue guidance of between $60.4 billion and $61.4 billion on a conference call with analysts.
Microsoft shares are outperforming the S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX) and Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: .IXIC) so far this year with gains of 38%, 11%, and 27%, respectively.
Alphabet share price falls 7%
The Alphabet share price went the other way, with Bloomberg reporting a 7.2% fall in after-hours trading despite the Google parent company beating earnings expectations.
According to reporting on CNBC, the top NASDAQ stock tumbled in response to weaker-than-expected results in the cloud business.
In its 3Q FY23 report, Alphabet reported revenue of $US76.69 billion for the September quarter, up 11% over 12 months, and net income of $US19.69 billion, up 42%.
Alphabet's EPS of $US1.55, up 46%, was higher than consensus expectations of $US1.45 per share.
Cloud revenue came in at US$8.41 billion compared to analysts' expectations of US$8.64 billion.
The CEO of Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, said:
I'm pleased with our financial results and our product momentum this quarter, with AIdriven innovations across Search, YouTube, Cloud, our Pixel devices and more.
We're continuing to focus on making AI more helpful for everyone; there's exciting progress and lots more to come.
Alphabet shares are also outperforming the US and NASDAQ stock indexes this year, up 56%.
