Alphabet's Profit Jumps On Advertising; Cloud Business Slows

The parent company of Google ended the third quarter with a 42% jump in profit. But growth in the cloud division was slower than analysts expected.

Alphabet's profit increase was driven by higher ad sales from Google, YouTube and higher cloud business revenue, the company said in a statement after markets closed Tuesday.

Profit rose to $19.7 billion, or $1.55 per share, from $13.9 billion a year earlier. Sales increased 11% to $76.9 billion. It was the first time in five quarters that revenue expanded at a double-digit pace.

The company was expected to report $1.45 earnings per share and revenue of $75.97 billion, CNBC reported, citing LSEG data.

The cloud unit revenue of $8.41 billion was below analysts' estimates of $8.64 billion, CNBC said, citing StreetAccount. The growth of 22% was slower than the 28% expansion in the second quarter.

"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," Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in the earnings statement. "We're continuing to focus on making AI more helpful for everyone; there's exciting progress and lots more to come."