Google parent Alphabet announces first-ever dividend, shares soar

In this Feb. 14, 2018, file photo the logo for Alphabet appears on a screen at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Alphabet announced its first-ever dividend on Thursday and a US$70 billion stock buybuck, cheering investors who sent the stock surging nearly 16 per cent after the bell.

The Google parent is returning capital while spending billions of dollars on data centers to catch up with rivals on generative artificial intelligence. The dividend will be 20 cents per share.

Just three months ago, Alphabet's Big Tech rival, Meta Platforms, announced its own first-ever dividend, a move that lifted the social media company's stock market value by $196 billion the following day. Amazon.com remains the lone holdout among Big Tech firms not offering a dividend.

Alphabet beat expectations for the quarter in sales, profit and advertising -- metrics that are all closely watched.

"Alphabet's announced dividend payouts and buybacks on top of the solid earnings beat are not only a breath of fresh air for the tech market as a whole, but also a very intelligent strategy for the search engine giant going into a tough time of the year," said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com.

Alphabet's after-hours share surge of nearly 16 per cent following the report increased its stock market value by about $300 billion to over $2 trillion.

In a call to discuss results, CEO Sundar Pichai touted Google's AI offerings as a boon to its core search results. "We are encouraged that we are seeing an increase in search usage among people who are using the AI overviews," he said.

Revenue was $80.54 billion for the quarter ended March 31, compared with estimates of $78.59 billion, according to LSEG data.

Meanwhile, Google Cloud revenue grew 28 per cent in the first quarter, boosted by a boom in generative AI tools that rely on cloud services to deliver the technology to customers.

Google's cloud services are attractive for venture-capital backed startups developing generative AI technologies due to its pricing and ease of integration with other tools, investors and experts have previously said.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)