What to Watch When Alphabet Reports Late Thursday

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By Chris Lange Updated Published
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What to Watch When Alphabet Reports Late Thursday

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Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction) is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. The consensus estimates call for $11.30 in earnings per share (EPS) and $38.15 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, Google’s parent said it had EPS of $4.54 on $32.66 billion in revenue.

The Google segment posted first-quarter revenues of $36.17 billion, up from $31.00 billion the previous year. Operating income rose from $8.37 billion to $9.33 billion. The operating loss on Other Bets totaled $868 million, up from $571 million in the year-ago quarter.

In the first quarter, year-over-year traffic acquisition costs paid to Google Network members fell by about four percentage points to 69% of Network revenues, or $3.48 billion. Payments to distribution partners totaled $3.38 billion, about 13% of websites revenues. Total traffic acquisition costs rose from $6.29 billion to $6.86 billion.

At the same time, paid clicks on Google websites increased 39% year over year and were down 9% sequentially. Aggregate cost per click fell 19% compared with the year-ago quarter and was up 5% sequentially.

[nativounit]

Excluding Thursday’s move, Alphabet had underperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 9% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was actually down closer to 6%.

A few analysts weighed in on Alphabet ahead of the report:

  • Stifel has a Hold rating with a $1,287 price target.
  • Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating with a $1,350 target.
  • SunTrust has a Buy rating with a $1,325 price target.
  • Wedbush has a Buy rating and a $1,350 price target.
  • Jefferies has a Buy rating with a $1,450 price target.
  • Morgan Stanley’s Overweight comes with a $1,400 target.

Shares of Alphabet were last seen trading down about 1% at $1,128.96, in a 52-week range of $977.66 to $1,296.97. The consensus price target is $1,335.22.

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Photo of Chris Lange
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.

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