We continue to set higher highs on the main market indexes, as Q3 earnings season has mostly picked up where Q2 earnings season left off. That said, these gains are looking a little exhausted: the Dow was +0.04% on the day and the S&P 500 +0.18% — both good enough for new all-time high closes. The Nasdaq is now less than 1% from its all-time closing high. Only the Russell 200 came in lower, -0.72% to below 2300.
The deluge of quarterly reports after the bell is the heaviest we’ve seen thus far in calendar Q3, so let’s get to a few of the big news items:
Alphabet
GOOGL
beat estimates on both top and bottom lines in its Q3 report this afternoon, and rather easily: $27.99 per share trounced the $23.13 in the Zacks consensus (and $16.40 per share reported in the year-ago quarter), and revenues of roughly $57.00 billion (accounting for traffic acquisitions costs not announced on the company’s headline of $65.12 billion) zoomed past the $51.80 billion expected.
Google’s core Search business outperformed expectations: $37.9 billion versus $36.3 billion. YouTube ads were down slightly from estimates to $7.2 billion, but its Network revenues brought in $8 billion versus $7.5 billion expected. Shares are -1.3% on the news, however, possibly giving back some of its 60%+ gains year to date.
Microsoft
MSFT
also put the wood to expectations in its fiscal Q1 report this afternoon: $2.71 per share on $45.32 billion in the quarter easily outperformed the $2.06 per share and $43.87 billion anticipated. While Azure growth slowed slightly in the quarter, overall revenue grew 22% year over year — the fastest pace since 2018. Shares are up 1.7% on the news, +45% year to date.
Advance Micro Devices
AMD
continues the healthy streak in quarterly reports this afternoon, with earnings of 73 cents per share beating expectations by 7 cents on revenues of $4.31 billion, which topped the $4.12 billion in the Zacks consensus, and +54% year over year. Gross margins came in +48% for the quarter. Guidance for Q4 sales brings more good news: the company is looking for $4.5 billion, up from analyst estimates for $4.25 billion. Shares are up slightly after-hours.
Twitter
TWTR
also brought Q3 results after today’s closing bell, with more disappointing results: -54 cents per share was a big miss from the +17 cents expected, although a one-time fine of $750 million accounts for much of this. Revenues reached $1.284 billion, slightly off the $1.29 billion analysts were looking for. Q4 revenue guidance is in-line at $1.5-1.6 billion. Yet shares are ripping higher +3.3% in late trading; the stock had been a laggard year to date.
Texas Instruments
TXN
was mixed in its Q3 performance this afternoon: earnings of $2.07 per share beat estimates by a penny on $4.64 billion in sales, which was slightly below the $4.69 billion expected. Guidance for Q4 were in range with a downside bias for both earnings and revenues, however. Shares were down more than -5% initially, but have moderated somewhat since the initial impact.
Another strong quarter came in from
Visa
V
today, with the company easily surpassing estimates on its fiscal Q4 earnings to $1.62 per share from $1.53 expected, on $6.56 billion outpacing the $6.48 billion from the Zacks consensus. The credit card major noted a rebound in travel expenditures in the quarter, and the company is increasing its dividend yield by +17%. Visa has never once missed an earnings estimate since its IPO back in 2008.
Robinhood Markets
HOOD
, on the other hand, is trading down -8.6% on its Q3 results, which missed badly on both top and bottom lines: -$2.06 per share on $365 million in revenues were well off the -$1.37 per share and $461 million expected. Monthly active users (MAU) came in at 18.9 million — below the 21 million posted the previous quarter. Activity in crypto trading slowed in the quarter, and of course the meme stocks took a backseat in Q3. The stock had been +13% year to date prior to this report.
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