Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) is set to report Q1 results today after the close with a conference call to follow at 4:30pm ET. GOOG usually reports within the first five minutes after the closing bell. 

Current Capital IQ consensus stands at EPS of $9.42 on Revenue of $24.17 bln. 

Youtube:

Revenue growth has been driven by a pick up in its YouTube advertising sales, Mobile, Network performance and build into the cloud space.

The YouTube growth will be an interesting topic. A number of advertisers in Q1 pulled out of deals with GOOGL. The issue was some of the YouTube videos that the ads were running next to were viewed as vulgar and too political.

GOOGL is coming off of an EPS miss in Q4. The miss was caused by a one time charge in Cost of Goods Sold and a higher than expected tax rate. 

Key Metrics

• Revenue Growth- Current consensus is for $24.18 bln or 18% y/y. The past three quarters have been 20%+ which is a difficult number to continue for a company this size.
• Aggregate Clicks Paid- Q4- +36%, street expectations were +25%; Q3 +33%; Q2 +29%; Q1 +29%.
• Aggregate Cost per Click- Q4- -15%, street expectations were for approx -15%; Q3 -11%; Q2 -7%; Q1 -9%.

Options:

A trader laid down some heavy call premium on GOOG this morning as the JUL21 950C were bought 3000X. This is either a stock replacement or likely a belief that the worst is over for the company. 

TECHS: