Just in case you missed it, Alphabet, Inc. (NASDAQ:$GOOGL) became the second company in United States history to reach a $700 billion market cap yesterday. Not only that, but Alphabet – the parent company of Google – reached this market capitalization in a fraction of the time of predecessor Apple, Inc (NASDAQ:$AAPL)
On Friday, Alphabet Class A stock gained 4.4% to a closing record of $1,036. Integrated with the Class C shares, FactSet announced that Alphabet’s market cap hit $710.4 billion. As a point of reference, it took Alphabet 13 years to hit this mark, and it took Apple three decades, according to the Wall Street Journal Market Data Group.
On Thursday, the tech company reported that Q3 sales increased from $22.25 billion in the 2016 period to $27.8 billion, thus resulting in a profit of $6.73 billion. Similar to previous years, the company’s biggest cash windfall was its ad sales via its Google unit, which increased 20% to $19.7 billion, surpassing analyst forecasts by $500 million, according to FactSet.
“Google, along with a few other select internet companies, is an internet staple,” Mark Mahaney of RBC Capital Markets wrote to clients on Friday. He added that the company had enjoyed 31 straight quarters of revenue growth of 20% or more.
To no surprise, FactSet reported that after the third-quarter results, 28 analysts increased their price targets, which pushed the average price target to $1,165.33.
Featured Image: depositphotos/@spvvk
