Wall Street earnings season - previews Alphabet, Microsoft, Visa

Alphabet (GOOGL.US)

Expectations:

Earnings per share (EPS): $1.26

Revenue: $70.68 billion

• This compares with earnings of $1.40 per share on revenue of $65.12 billion in the previous quarter.
• The market consensus calls for Google's ad revenue at $56.9 billion, up 8% from a year ago,
• YouTube ad revenue will be $7.5 billion, up 3.5%, 
• Google Cloud Platform revenue will be $6.7 billion, up 34%.
• While ad spending tends to decline in an environment of a weakening economy, digital ads now account for two-thirds of all marketing spending.

Microsoft (MSFT.US)

Expectations:

Earnings per share (EPS): $2.31

Revenue: $49.73 billion

• This compares with earnings of $2.27 per share on revenues of $45.32 billion in the same quarter last year.
• The market remains fundamentally bullish on Microsoft, especially ahead of the Q1 earnings report for fiscal 2023. 
• The fast-growing Azure cloud platform and Intelligent Cloud business are expected to "drive" future results
• Microsoft forecasts Intelligent Cloud revenue of $20.3 billion to $20.6 billion in the first fiscal quarter. 
• Equally impressive is the 40% year-on-year increase in Azure and cloud revenue in the last reported quarter. 
• Similarly, investors expect Azure to maintain its strong growth in the quarter just ended. 
• However, the situation is different for the PC segment, which has seen some weakening. 
• Research firm Gartner estimates that PC sales fell about 20% in the third quarter, which could affect Microsoft's PC business and possibly Windows revenue, which fell 2% year-over-year last quarter due to inflationary pressures, supply chain issues and a slowing PC market.

Visa (V.US)

Expectations:

Earnings per share (EPS): $1.87

Revenue: $7.57 billion

• Analysts expect Visa's revenue to rise 13% to $7.5 billion, the main source of which was expected to be growth in travel and entertainment spending. 
• Earnings per share are expected to be $1.87 per share, up from $1.62 per share a year ago, according to FactSet data.
• Much of this projected growth is due to a busy summer travel season, with Visa's cross-border travel volume reaching 115% of 2019 levels. 
• Increased travel is likely to continue as major airlines report good booking volumes for the holiday season.