Alphabet's earnings to shine spotlight on Google's online ads
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As Meta Platforms (META) shares surged Thursday due to enthusiasm over the social-media giant's better-than-expected quarterly results and outlook, Wall Street prepared for the next business report from another online titan: Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG).
Analysts currently expect Alphabet (GOOG) to turn in a fourth-quarter profit of $1.20 a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $76.5B for the period that ended in December. 
Alphabet's (GOOG) results come amid ongoing issues involving companies that depend on online advertising as a major source of revenue. Among those issues are changes Apple (AAPL) implemented regarding the tracking of people's activity online that are meant to provide better security across mobile devices.
Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Shmulik said in research note this week that among the major online and social-media companies, Google (GOOG) "is best positioned for share capture of incremental digital ad dollars that should return later this year."
Still, Shmulik, who has an outperform rating and $125-a-share price target on Alphabet's (GOOG) stock, said that the current sentiment around Google "is as negative as we've seen" heading into the company's results.
Alphabet (GOOG) shares climbed almost 6% in late trading Thursday.
Wall Street analysts currently have a strong buy rating on Alphabet's (GOOG) shares, while Seeking Alpha authors give the stock a buy rating. Seeking Alpha's Quant System, which historically outperforms the stock market, agrees with Wall Street and gives Alphabet's (GOOG) a rating of strong buy.