By Paul Vigna
The first high-profile earnings report, from Alcoa, was just what the market wanted, a nice, comfortable "beat" over Street expectations. The second high flier, Google, comes in after the market close.
Google's in something of a separate universe in more ways than one. The company doesn't provide earnings estimates, which doesn't exactly leave analysts blind, but it does make their jobs tougher. Google's had a lot of "beats" over the years sprinkled with a couple of "misses" that knocked the market off-kilter.
Street consensus for the company's earnings, when it reports after the bell this afternoon, is $9.65 per share, or $2.82 billion, according to FactSet. Revenue's seen at $8.09 billion. Last year's first-quarter, by the way, was one of those misses. The company posted EPS of $8.08, exlcuding charges, amid a heavy spending spree. That was below estimates and cost the stock a quick 7% in the immediate aftermath.
Watch for more exogenous issues this time around. Needham expects EPS of only $9.26, citing a decline in cost-per-click rates and European weakness. "Our search-revenue estimate reflects strong query volumes and paid clicks, but we expect declining CPC rates and weak European markets to partially offset this strength," the firm's Kerry Rice wrote.
Keep an eye on anything and everything tied to mobile and Google's Android system, especially activation numbers. Also look out for comments on the Motorola Mobility acquisition.
As our Dennis Berman wrote this week, "it's gut-check time" in regards to this deal, and what Google plans to do with the company.
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