Newsletter 
This time of year is usually filled with earnings calls for the third quarter of the year and as one would have it quite a few companies announced their Q3 earnings just earlier this afternoon, Alphabet being one of those companies. In the midst of all the information about their revenue, Google mentioned that it would be plunking down $7 billion to buyback some of its stock, marking this the second time ever that Google has done so with the first happening last year, although Google spent quite a bit more this time around as the first stock buyback saw them only spending around $5 billion.
With this being the second year in a row that the company has spent money to buy back stock from its shareholders, it’s entirely possible that this could end up becoming a regular thing for Alphabet and Google going forward. Google did not mention any reasons for the decision to buy back stock again this year, but they did state that it will include transactions that were both placed on the open market as well as those which are negotiated between the company and other parties privately. It’s also quite possible that Google could have decided on a second buyback of stock partially due to the amount of free cash flow they have available to make such purchases, which is floating around the $80 billion mark.
With Google spending even more this year to buy back stock, this should end up raising the value of the stock that remains available for purchase, although there is no guarantee this will happen. Last year, when Alphabet spent $5 million for the stock buyback they didn’t start actually buying stock back until the fourth quarter, so there is a good chance that Google will do the same thing here with transactions for the stock not being made immediately. Google and Alphabet weren’t the only companies to announce earnings today, as Amazon also reported their earnings for Q3, which amounted to an increase in Revenue, AWS Revenue, and a decrease in stock value as it reportedly fell by about 7 percent at its most, with it resting at about a 4.5 percent decrease.