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Alphabet becomes world's most valuable company

Alphabet becomes world's most valuable company

Business

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, has become the world’s most valuable company after its last earning report.

The company recently released its 2015 fourth quarter earnings report showing a profit of $4.9 billion, an increase from $4.7 billion a year ago.

The release increased the company’s share price as much as 9 percent after trading.

The company said it would have earned $8.67 per share if not for employees stock and item expenses.

With the recent record, Alphabet is now worth around $568 billion, compared with Apple’s value price of $538 billion.

Apple’s stock has been sliding over slowing iPhone sales.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s stock has surged by 45 percent since the end of 2014 when it was still trading under Google’s name.

The fourth quarter report marks the first time Alphabet has spelled out the cost of running experimental businesses, trying to do everything including curing cancer.

Google produced an operating profit of $6.8 billion in the fourth quarter of last year from a revenue of $17.1 billion after subtracting ad commissions.

This translate to a profit margin of 40 percent while Apple recorded an operating profit margin of 32 percent in its most recent quarter.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s other companies together made an operating loss of $1.2 billion on revenue of just $151 million.

Managing Director of Research at Mizuho Securities, Neil Doshi said it looks like Google continues to execute on mobile advertising.

“Two or three years ago, mobile was a big head wind for Google. There were concerns that it had a negative impact on its desktop business, but as mobile takes over for more searches, mobile ads are becoming closer in value to the desktop ads.”