Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), like almost everyone else, is having deep trouble monetizing its mobile offerings. An earnings report due to be released this week is likely to show a company still struggling to monetize mobile, but one that’s ahead of the curve, and growing impressively, at least in the opinion of Wedbush Securities.
According to Shyam Patil & Co. who authored the report for Wedbush, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is likely to show solid results in its coming report. The company’s mobile results are likely to show strong growth, but they still make up just a small part of the company’s revenue. Google is winning on mobile, but it’ll take more to ensure market dominance.
Google mobile earnings still underwhelming
The company, which has ruled the desktop advertising space for years, will release its earnings report for the three months ended June 30 on Thursday July 17 and the release will, according to analysts at Wedbush, show that the company is still weak on smartphones, but the company’s metrics are improving at a prodigious rate.
About 28% of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), (NASDAQ:GOOGL) paid search ads are expected tohave come from mobile in the second quarter of 2014. Unfortunately, the break down is not as inspiring. 20% of paid search revenue is going to come from tablets, leaving just 8% from the truly mobile smartphone world. That’s almost a doubling over the same period last year.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), (NASDAQ:GOOGL), will rule the mobile world if it continues to grow at the current rate, but there’s already a huge amount of revenue expansion priced into the company’s stock. The Wedbush analysts rate the company at Neutral, and put a price target of $600 on the firm’s shares.
Google future remains murky on smartphone competition
Google isn’t able to monetize smartphone usage like it wants to and, though the company is trying everything to stay ahead of the pack, there are competitors on the horizon. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has shown impressive growth in the mobile world, and is building itself up as the Mountain View company’s main competitor.
Facebook’s concentration the mobile world is meeting its concentration on video content. Mark Zuckerberg’s social network could soon be a major player in the video world, and that may work to improve the company’s smartphone revenue share. According to the Webush report “Facebook has become a significant source of traffic and important discovery vehicle for YouTube videos, and this move to directly capture video content, could impact YouTube. “
Competition may begin to affect Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), (NASDAQ:GOOGL) for the first time in years as it tries to have an effect on mobile, and the company’s shareholders should watch out. Given the high valuation of the company, Wedbush’s target sets it at 20 times 2015 earnings, a shock to the company’s business could cause a large decline in share price.
