As the Big Tech earning reports continue to gather steam, Google is one of the next in line as investors hope for some positive news.
Jan. 31, 2022
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG), the parent company of technology heavyweight Google, is set to report Q4 earnings this week. With market volatility climbing and tech stocks taking a hammering since the beginning of the year, investors are hoping for a stellar earnings call and a promising outlook to steady the ship.
The company’s stock is down over 8% already year-to-date (YTD), so a positive earnings report could be extremely helpful as Google looks to reverse its current slide.
When is Google’s Q4 earnings date?
Google’s parent company Alphabet is set to report its Q4 and fiscal year 2021 earnings at 5 PM EST on Tuesday, February 1, 2022.
How do I listen to Google’s earnings call?
Google’s earnings call will be webcast live on the companies own YouTube page. You can access the call here. A full replay of the webcast will also remain available afterward on the same page. To access the call transcript, as well as the shareholder’s letter and the financial statements for the quarter, all you need to do is go to Alphabet’s investor relation page.
What to expect from Google’s earnings
Wall Street expects the company to post earnings per share (EPS) of $27.41 on revenue of $72.09 billion. This would see growth on the year-ago quarter of 22.9% and 26.7% respectively. The board consensus seems to be that Google is set to announce an extremely profitable year, which investors will undoubtedly be pleased about. However, of even more interest will be the company’s future outlook, with multiple headwinds anticipated to affect growth throughout 2022.
One of the biggest issues facing the company is the ever-increasing number of regulatory investigations thrown its way. The firm is currently facing an antitrust case from a group consisting of 36 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia. The case revolves around the alleged aggressive terms imposed by Google’s app store on other developers.
Rumors have also been swirling about a proposed Justice Department lawsuit targeting the company’s supposed monopoly in the digital advertising space. These investigations are likely to complicate some of the companies growth over the next year with resources having to be redirected to its legal woes.
Investors will also be eager to see how supply-chain issues are set to affect the company throughout the year. While not directly affecting Google as much as some other companies, declining sales opportunities for other businesses will mean less need for advertising spend. As one of the world leaders in advertising, this could significantly impact Google’s bottom line.
Investors will be hoping for a continuation of the company’s search dominance, where it holds 90% of the market share. Attention will also be paid to the firm’s video platform YouTube. Despite still owning 75% of the market for digital video content, rivals such as TikTok have been steadily gaining ground. YouTube recently announced some strategic changes for the year ahead, which investors will be looking for further elaboration on in the call.
Finally, shareholders will be eagerly awaiting the results from Google’s cloud services division. In its last quarterly earnings call, the cloud arm increased revenue by 45% year-over-year (YoY) to a total of $5 billion — accounting for 8% of Google’s total revenue. If this figure can continue to rise, it could act as a much-needed catalyst for reversing the company’s stock momentum since the beginning of the year.