12:01 PM EDT, 07/24/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) reported strong Q2 results fueled by robust growth in its search and cloud divisions, BofA Securities said in a note Wednesday.

"[Q2] net revenue at $71.4 [billion] was above [Wall Street] at $70.7 [billion] driven by upside in Search & Cloud," BofA said. However, its video-sharing platform YouTube ( GOOG ) fell short of analyst forecasts, it added.

YouTube's ( GOOG ) ad revenue growth slowed to 13% year-over-year, missing analyst expectations of 16%. The company cited tougher comparisons from the previous year, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, as a factor in the slowdown, and possibly experiencing increased cost-per-click pressure, the note said.

Search revenues saw a 14% year-over-year increase, while Google Cloud had a 29% increase in revenue, BofA said, adding that both segments benefited from increased AI investments.

"Strong [Q2] search and Cloud results reinforce our thesis that Google ( GOOG ) is a net Al beneficiary," BofA said.

Alphabet reported Q2 earnings of $1.89 per diluted share, up from $1.44 a year earlier. The company's revenue rose to $84.74 billion from $74.6 billion a year earlier.

For Q3, the brokerage said it lowered its net revenue outlook excluding traffic acquisition

costs by 0.2% to $72.7 billion and EPS by 2% to $1.86. For 2024, BofA trimmed its net revenue expectation by 0.2% to $292.3 billion.

BofA kept its buy rating on Alphabet with a price objective of $206.

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