Alphabet Inc.’s stock slipped nearly 5% in extended trading Thursday after the tech giant missed slightly on revenue and earnings in ho-hum quarterly results. Google’s parent company reported fiscal fourth-quarter total revenue of $76.05 billion, up from $75.3 billion a year ago. Earnings were $13.62 billion, or $1.05 per share, compared with $20.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, last year. Alphabet’s revenue, minus traffic-acquisition costs (TAC), was $63.12 billion, vs. $61.9 billion a year ago.
“We’re on an important journey to re-engineer our cost structure in a durable way and to build financially sustainable, vibrant, growing businesses across Alphabet,” Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement announcing the results. The company recently announced 12,000 layoffs and has scaled back hires. In a conference call later with analysts, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said a “pullback” in spending by advertisers amid a more challenging economy as well as foreign-exchange headwinds impacted sales. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Alphabet
GOOG,
+7.27%
GOOGL,
+7.28%
to report total revenue of $76.2 billion and earnings of $1.18 per share, with sales expected to be in line with last year’s results and profit declining from the holiday season a year ago. Revenue, minus TAC, were m …