Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon Face Divergent Q2 Earnings Comparisons
Alphabet and Facebook benefit from easy year-over-year comparisons as digital advertising rebounded from pandemic lows, while Amazon faces tough metrics due to last year's e-commerce surge. Alphabet stock leads the trio with a 51.8% year-to-date gain ahead of its Tuesday earnings report.
Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon prepare to release their second-quarter 2021 earnings this week, though they face very different expectations. Alphabet and Facebook benefit from easy year-over-year comparisons because the pandemic severely hurt digital advertising during the same period last year. As a result, Wall Street projects Alphabet's revenue to jump 46% to $56 billion and earnings per share to surge 90% to $19.21.
Amazon faces the opposite dynamic, as the e-commerce giant enjoys no such easy comparisons. During the second quarter of 2020, consumers worldwide flocked to online shopping, giving Amazon a massive tailwind in both sales and profit. This difficult baseline helps explain why Amazon stock lags behind its peers, posting only a 12.3% gain so far this year compared to the S&P 500's 18.4% return.
Alphabet stands out as the clear market leader among these three tech giants heading into earnings season. Shares of Google's parent company are up 51.8% year to date, easily outpacing Facebook's 35.4% gain and Amazon's modest growth. All three companies report their quarterly results after the market closes, with Alphabet scheduled for Tuesday, Facebook for Wednesday, and Amazon for Thursday.