Alphabet falls after disappointing earnings that analysts say could signal bad news for Meta

Shares of Alphabet dipped as much as 8% Wednesday morning, a day after the company released third-quarter earnings that missed on the top and bottom lines.

Alphabet reported its weakest period for growth since 2013 except for one other period early in the pandemic. Revenue growth slowed to 6% from 41% a year earlier as the company contends with a continued downdraft in online ad spending.

The company reported overall advertising revenue of $54.48 billion during the quarter, up slightly from the prior year. Analysts were expecting an increase of about 3% in YouTube ad revenue, but it slid about 2% to $7.07 billion from $7.21 billion a year ago.

Analysts at Bernstein maintained their outperform rating on Alphabet stock but said as Google’s ad revenues decelerate, the company has become “increasingly uncomfortable” over the last six months.

“Google is an ad business first, and digital ads is no longer a safe place to hide,” they said Wednesday.

Raymond James analysts also maintained their outperform rating, citing expectations for long-term ad revenue growth and Google Cloud momentum. The analysts noted Alphabet’s plans to slow headcount additions, so they “are optimistic that margins can improve by later 2023.”

Alphabet’s report marks an ominous start to Big Tech earnings week for investors focused on the digital ad market, and analysts at Needham said it is likely bad news for Meta.

“GOOGL talked about more hardware spending going forward. GOOGL and META are both spending more capX and op Ex on hardware, which implies lower [Return on Invsted Capital] than in the past when GOOGL was predominantly a software and advertising biz,” they wrote in a Wednesday note.

Meta is scheduled to report earnings after the bell Wednesday.

— CNBC’s Jennifer Elias and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.