<story><title>Alphabet slides 5% after missing earnings expectations on revenue of $20.3B</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/21/alphabet-slides-6-after-missing-earnings-expectations/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tma-1</author><text>Long-term, I am not very bullish on Google&amp;#x2F;Alphabet. More than 90% of their profits come online advertising, something that can be easily blocked for life with a simple browser extension&amp;#x2F;plugin. Some worrying figures[1]:&lt;p&gt;* US ad blocking grew by 48% to reach 45 million active users in 12 months up to June 2015.&lt;p&gt;* Ad blocking grew by 41% globally in the last 12 months.&lt;p&gt;* US ad blocking grew by 48% to reach 45 million active users in 12 months up to June 2015.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.pagefair.com&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;ad-blocking-report&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blog.pagefair.com&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;ad-blocking-report&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Alphabet slides 5% after missing earnings expectations on revenue of $20.3B</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/21/alphabet-slides-6-after-missing-earnings-expectations/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jhulla</author><text>Alphabet isn&amp;#x27;t the only big corp down after hours today.&lt;p&gt;As of now:&lt;p&gt;Microsoft - down 5%.  &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;stock&amp;#x2F;msft&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;stock&amp;#x2F;msft&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Visa - down 4%  &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;stock&amp;#x2F;v&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;stock&amp;#x2F;v&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Starbux - down 4% &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;stock&amp;#x2F;sbux&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.marketwatch.com&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;stock&amp;#x2F;sbux&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;In each case, the cause is different.   But one thing is common, trailing PE ratios of all four are high compared to historical norms.  High  PE ratios are maintained with high growth in revenue, earnings and margins.   Back off even a bit and the invisible hand smacks you in the face.</text></comment>