Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is set to release its earnings numbers for the first quarter of 2014 on Wednesday, April 16. The company will be one of the first of the Nasdaq’s big momentum stocks to report earnings for the three month period, and the numbers will be studied closely. After the loss of value in momentum stocks in the early months of the year, investors nervously await the earnings of those very companies.
In the first quarter of the year, the firm was probably impacted by disappointing returns from the traditional advertising business, predicted by the performance of the company in the fourth quarter of 2013; growth of the mobile ad business, which Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will have done if it wants to avoid decimation; and the performance of auxiliary units, including the sale of parts of the Motorola mobile hardware division, the performance of Chromecast and Google Fiber.
Analysts expect solid growth from Google
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is expected to continue its impressive growth through 2014 and analysts are expecting the first quarter of the year to roundly demonstrate that outcome. The company is expected to show earnings of $6.32 per share for the three month period according to consensus of 38 analysts surveyed by Businessweek.
Revenue for the first quarter of the year is expected to come in at $15.5 billion according to the same survey of analysts. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) managed to earn $5.79 per share in the same quarter of last year on revenue totaling $14 billion. Robust growth has always been the expectation of the market when dealing with Google, and this year is no different.
Google earnings dramatic in midst of momentum bust
The market is currently in a skeptical mood. Though there is still quite a lot of bullishness in some areas, high value internet companies have been hit hard. Despite Google’s size it is still valued at a relatively high multiple, around thirty times 2013 earnings. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) may have proven itself a thousand times over, but it’s still vulnerable to volatility after negative earnings.
In the current climate that volatility could be multiplied. A company like Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) cannot keep delivering exceptional growth, but investors don’t seem to think the natural slowdown has arrived yet. That could be problematic if the company fails to deliver on Wednesday afternoon.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) sets the baseline, and often the top line, for the performance of web-based companies in any given period. Its earnings should go some way to reassuring, or warning off, investors who are heavily interested in internet companies.
