What to Look for in Google Earnings

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 5:10AM EST · Published Jul 28, 11:05AM EDT

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What to Look for in Google Earnings — © Wikimedia Commons

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is set to release its second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. In its last earnings report, this company underperformed, but overall analysts called it a good quarter. Despite missing expectations the results were still solid, with 23% or so currency and hedging neutral revenue and non-GAAP operating income growing 21% year over year. Hopefully, Alphabet can post a win with the latest results.

The consensus estimates for the quarter are $8.04 in earnings per share (EPS) on $20.76 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, it posted EPS of $6.99 and $17.73 billion in revenue.

The technology giant is one of the top large cap picks at RBC. Alphabet, through its subsidiaries, builds technology products and provides services to organize the information. The company offers Google Search, which provides information online, and Google Now, which offers information to users when they need it.

Top Wall Street analysts cite the company’s growing presence in the cloud, which some ultimately feel can be a $7 billion revenue opportunity by 2020. The current cloud products offered by the company are improving, and the analysts cite five potential strengths and key potential adoption drivers for the company. With the company targeting a total addressable market of $120 billion by 2020, the analysts feel revenue can jump from $1 billion last year to $7 billion by then.

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Also analysts are seeing this company’s channel checks showing relatively solid growth in mobile search, YouTube, programmatic advertising and PLAs for Google. The firm did note that paid search in the United States declined 1%, but mobile impressions were up 46% and clicks increased 69%. In a recent report, Jefferies detailed:

We maintain that online video is the biggest online ad growth driver and YouTube continues to be the premier vehicle to play the trend with 1B+ users. We model net revenues and Non-GAAP EPS of $16.9 billion and $8.37, well ahead of Street $16.6 billion and $7.96. Our estimates imply 21% Y/Y growth in net revenues, and 27% Y/Y growth in Non-GAAP EPS.

So far in 2016, Alphabet has underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down 2%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is actually up 15%.

Shares of Alphabet were trading at $762.10 ahead of the report, with a consensus analyst price target of $908.93 and a 52-week trading range of $593.09 to $810.35.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.