Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook’s Earnings: What to Watch

For the second quarter in a row, Apple  (AAPL) - Get Report, Amazon.com  (AMZN) - Get Report, Alphabet/Google  (GOOG) - Get Report and Facebook  (FB) - Get Report plan to report within 30 minutes of each other on a Thursday afternoon.

Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook are expected to report shortly after the bell on Thursday, while Apple is expected to report at 4:30 P.M. Eastern Time. Alphabet’s earnings call starts at 4:30; Apple and Facebook’s calls start at 5:00; and Amazon’s call starts at 5:30.

Here are some key numbers to watch as the festivities commence. All of the consensus estimates shown below are provided by FactSet.

Apple

Sales and Earnings Estimates

The consensus is for Apple to report September quarter (fiscal fourth quarter) revenue of $63.58 billion (down 1% annually) and GAAP EPS of $0.70 (down 7%).

For the seasonally big December quarter, the revenue consensus stands at $100.61 billion (up 10%). Apple has historically provided quarterly sales guidance in its reports, but has declined to in its last two reports, citing COVID-19-related uncertainty.

Other Numbers to Watch

Revenue by business segment:
iPhone - consensus of $28.08 billion (down 16%, impacted by the timing of this year’s iPhone launches)
iPad - consensus of $6.02 billion (up 29%)
Mac - consensus of $7.82 billion (up 12%)
Wearables, Home and Accessories (fueled by Apple Watch and AirPods growth in recent years) - consensus of $7.17 billion (up 10%)

Services - consensus of $14.11 billion (up 13%)

Revenue by region:
Americas - was $27.02 billion (up 8%) in the June quarter
Europe - was $14.17 billion (up 19%) in the June quarter
Greater China - was $9.33 billion (up 2%) in the June quarter
Japan - was $4.97 billion (up 22%) in the June quarter
Rest of Asia-Pac - was $4.2 billion (up 17%) in the June quarter

Gross margin - consensus of 38.1% (compares with 38% a year ago)
Stock buybacks - Apple spent more than $17 billion on buybacks during its June quarter

Amazon.com

Sales and Earnings Estimates

The consensus is for Amazon to report Q3 revenue of $92.71 billion (up 33% annually) and GAAP EPS of $7.44 (up 76%).

Amazon typically provides quarterly sales and GAAP operating income guidance in its reports. For Q4, the revenue consensus is at $112.5 billion (up 29%) and the operating income consensus is at $5.81 billion (up 50%).

Other Numbers to Watch

Revenue by reporting segment:
North America - consensus of $56.76 billion (up 33%)
International - consensus of $23.9 billion (up 30%)
AWS - consensus of $11.6 billion (up 29%)

Revenue by type:
Online Stores (direct e-commerce) - consensus of $46.75 billion (up 33%)
Third-Party Seller Services (commissions, fulfillment services, etc.) - consensus of $18.51 billion (up 40%)
Physical Stores (dominated by Whole Foods) - consensus of $3.97 billion (down 5%)
Subscription Services (driven by Prime fees and content subscriptions) - consensus of $6.28 billion (up 27%)
“Other” (dominated by ad sales) - consensus of $4.92 billion (up 37%)

Gross margin - consensus of 40.4% (down 0.6 points annually)
Headcount - stood at 876,800 (up 34% annually) at the end of Q2

Alphabet/Google

Sales and Earnings Estimates

The consensus is for Alphabet to report Q3 revenue of $42.8 billion (up 6% annually) and GAAP EPS of $11.33 (up 12%). Excluding traffic acquisition costs (ad revenue-sharing payments), the revenue consensus is at $35.19 billion.

Alphabet doesn’t provide formal quarterly guidance.

Other Numbers to Watch

Revenue by business segment:
Google Search & Other (ad revenue, dominated by Google Search) - consensus of $24.96 billion*
YouTube ads - consensus of $4.38 billion*
Google Network (ad sales on third-party websites/apps) - consensus of $5.07 billion (down 4%)
Google Cloud - consensus of $3.32 billion*
Google Other (Play Store, hardware, YouTube subscriptions) - consensus of $5.11 billion*
Other Bets (Google Fiber, Verily, Waymo, etc.) - consensus of $153 million (down 1%)

*Year-ago sales for these segments aren’t known yet, since Alphabet changed its segment reporting in January

Stock buybacks - totaled $6.85 billion in Q2
Headcount - stood at 127,498 (up 18% annually) at the end of Q2

Facebook

Sales and Earnings Estimates

The consensus is for Facebook to report Q3 revenue of $19.79 billion (up 12% annually) and GAAP EPS of $1.90 (down 11%).

Facebook doesn’t provide formal sales guidance, but it does often provide commentary about how it sees quarterly revenue growth trending. Currently, the Q4 revenue consensus stands at $24.22 billion, which implies 15% growth.

Other Numbers to Watch

Revenue by type:
Advertising - consensus of $19.44 billion (up 12%)
“Other” (VR headset and Portal device sales, in-game transactions, etc.) - consensus of $339 million (up 26%)

Revenue by region:
U.S./Canada - consensus of $9.7 billion (up 14%)
Europe - consensus of $4.63 billion (up 12%)
Asia-Pac - consensus of $3.83 billion (up 17%)
Rest of World - consensus of $1.86 billion (up 5%)

User metrics:
Facebook and Messenger monthly active users (MAUs) - consensus of 2.71 billion (up 11%)
Facebook and Messenger daily active users (DAUs) - consensus of 1.79 billion (up 11%)
App family MAUs - stood at 3.14 billion (up 14%) at the end of Q2
App family DAUs - stood at 2.47 billion (up 15%) at the end of Q2

Stock buybacks - totaled $1.37 billion in Q2
Headcount - stood at 52,534 (up 32% annually) at the end of Q2