On the first day of this month, Google.. er, Alphabet.. turned in an impressive quarter.
Revenues soared 18% Y/Y while Q4 earnings were $8.67/share, well above the $8.08 the Street was looking for and a whopping $2 more than Q4 2014. Paid clicks rose by more than a third while FCF rose to $4.3 for the period. In short, just about everything looked great with the possible exception of CPC, which dropped 13%.
The stock jumped AH and just like that, Alphabet was the world’s most valuable stock, surpassing Apple. As we noted at the time, this happened on the same day that FaceBook blew past Exxon as the third most valuable stock.
“Everything’s working in [Google’s] favor right now,” James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co said.
Since Monday, Apple regained the top spot in terms of market cap, but given the fanfare, it's worth taking a look at how the two most valuable companies in the world stack up to the rest of the field on a variety of "trivial" things like revenue and net income.
That's FactSet's "topic of the week", and as you'll see below, when it comes to raking in money, nobody does it like WalMart.
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From FactSet
Alphabet vs. Apple: Who is Bigger?
This past Monday after the bell, Alphabet reported EPS of $8.67 for Q4 2015, which was 7% above the mean EPS estimate. On Tuesday, Alphabet closed the trading day with a market value of $530.9 billion, which vaulted the company above Apple for the largest market value in the S&P 500 index. Since Tuesday, Apple has regained the top spot in in the S&P 500 index in terms of market value. However, the companies are ranked #1 and #2 on this list (based on yesterday’s closing prices) at this time. Given their top rankings in terms of market value, where do these companies rank in the S&P 500 in terms of largest revenues and largest earnings?
In terms of total revenues over the past four quarters (as not all S&P 500 companies have reported actual results for Q4 2015), Wal-Mart holds the top spot for the highest revenues at $484.0 billion. Apple holds the third spot on this list, with total revenues over the past four quarters of $233.3 billion. Alphabet is ranked #33 on this list, with total revenues over the past four quarters of $74.2 billion.
In terms of net income over the past four quarters, Apple holds the top spot for highest net income at $53.7 billion. Alphabet holds the ninth spot on the list, with total net income over the past four quarters of $16.4 billion.
At this point in time, Apple is a larger company than Alphabet in terms of market value, total revenues, and total net income.
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So there you have it. Are Apple and Google dominate when it comes to market cap and net income? Yes.
Can they compete with Sam Walton on gross sales? No. Not even close.
Of course that discrepancy should tell you something about why WalMart needs to shutter 269 stores and fire 16,000 people. When you outsell Exxon Mobil 2 to 1 and are nowhere to be found in the top 10 companies by net income you know you are playing with the thinnest of margins.