Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta to Release Earnings

This week could be shaping up to be an important one for global Indices. In the coming days, some of the biggest names in the American tech industry are set to release their earnings reports for the most recent quarter. Let’s take a closer look at what may be expected:

Amazon Predicted to Grow

E-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) is expected to release its Q1 2023 figures on Thursday, April 27th, after the ring of the closing bell. Stock traders may be especially attentive to what the denizens of the firm’s executive suite have to say about overall business conditions later this week.

Amazon’s fundamentals so far this year have been a mixed bag; while its share price has increased 27.3% since the top of the year, as of the time of writing, its stock value has declined 5% since its 2023 peak of $113.13 on February 2nd. Furthermore, Amazon has shed 27,000 positions from its payroll so far in 2023. According to Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy, this move was necessary in order to trim costs in the prevailing market conditions of volatility.

According to some analysts, these measures may have already borne fruit in the first quarter. Estimates are for Amazon’s earnings per share (EPS) figure to come in at 25 cents, a rise of more than 19% compared to the year-ago figure. Revenues are expected to rise year-over-year to reach more than $124 billion for Q1 2023.

However, the coast is not yet clear for Amazon. Much will rest on the guidance executives provide for the current quarter in light of the macroeconomic slowdown affecting the American economy as a whole. (Source:Yahoo Finance)

Alphabet Hits the Skids?

Alphabet (GOOG), the parent company of Google, is expected to release Q1 2023 results tomorrow, April 25th, after the markets in New York close. Some analysts are saying that Tuesday’s release could show a sharp fall in the tech giant’s fortunes.

It’s expected that the continuing reluctance of many firms to spend on digital advertising could have affected Alphabet’s bottom line in the first quarter of this year. However, several relatively new business segments could have provided a boost over the first three months of the year.

Some are saying that Alphabet’s continued efforts toward integrating advanced language models and artificial intelligence into its search engine business branch could have driven traffic higher, while improvements to the firm’s cloud-related offerings may also have made their mark in Q1. 

Predictions are for quarterly revenues to have risen 1.6% to just under $57 billion when compared to the year-ago figures, while earnings per share could have fallen as much as 13.8% to $1.06 per share. Whether these numbers could push traders to halt the momentum that has raised Alphabet’s share price by 19% so far in 2023 remains to be seen. 

Meta to Drop Down?

Yet another tech giant, Meta (META) is expected to release quarterly results following the conclusion of the trading day on Wednesday, April 26th. Many analysts are predicting less than rosy figures to be released for this big name in social media.

Estimates are for Meta’s earnings per share figure to have declined by just under 28% to $1.96, while revenues could have fallen by as much as 1.5% to less than $27.5 billion when compared to the year-ago figure.

Although Meta has joined the wave of Big Tech layoffs and payroll cuts along with many other Big Tech firms, analysts foresee that the company’s operating margin has still declined. This could be a major sticking point for investors looking for strict fiscal discipline from the firm’s executive suite amid the ongoing fall in online advertising revenue. Meta shares are up by nearly 77% so far this year to date, but whether this trend will be sustained following quarterly earnings is highly uncertain.

These three Big Tech firms account for a healthy proportion of the S&P 500’s (USA 500) total value, and therefore the way their share prices head in the coming days may prove important to traders and investors alike. With so much yet to be determined, this could surely prove to be an interesting week for the markets.