Big tech companies smashed the market expectations

All the recent criticism of big tech in Washington D.C. and the popular media doesn't seem to be hurting the companies' financial results.

Four tech giants reported earnings after the bell on Thursday, and all of them beat expectations and saw their stocks shoot up.

Amazon: EPS of 52 cents came in way ahead of expectations of 3 cents, and investors gave the company a pass on its razor-thin 0.8 percent profit margin, the lowest it's shown since September 2014. Total revenue was $43.8 billion, and Amazon Web Services, the company's pioneering cloud business, passed $4 billion in quarterly revenue and operating income of $1.17 billion. The stock soared more than 7 percent after hours.

Alphabet: EPS of $9.57 topped estimates of $8.33, sending the stock up around 3 percent after hours. Nearly all of its revenue still comes from advertising -- $24.1 billion out of its total $27.8 billion, or 87 percent.

Microsoft: EPS of 84 cents (excluding certain items) beat estimates of 72 cents, and the company's various cloud businesses topped a $20 billion annualized run rate. The stock up 4 percent after hours.

Intel: EPS of $1.01 beat expectations of 80 cents, and the main surprise was that revenue in its client computing group -- that is, mostly chips in PCs -- was flat instead of down. The stock was up about 1.5 percent.

Overall, these four companies have a combined market cap of close to $2 trillion.

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Trader Bozhidar Arabadzhiev

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