What to Watch When Alphabet Reports Late Thursday
Alphabet is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday.
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.
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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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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
