When Google-parent Alphabet reports third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, Wall Street analysts will look for its new Chief Financial Officer, Anat Ashkenazi, to set her priorities. One possibility is that Ashkenazi could be open to providing annual guidance for Google stock, something the internet giant hasn't done.
While Wall Street expects Ashkenazi to signal possible changes to financial reports, most likely carrying them out will wait for its December quarter earnings report.
Google Stock: New CFO
Google earnings are due after the market close on Tuesday.
Ashkenazi, who started as Google CFO July 31, held diverse financial, strategy, and operations roles at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly for over 23 years. Among them was serving as CFO for the past three years. Google awarded her a one-time signing bonus of $9.9 million.
Analysts will look for Ashkenazi's views on Google stock buybacks and cost cutting/operating margin trajectory. Also on transparency, such as more disclosure on YouTube's financials.
Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said in a report: "Alphabet's new CFO could elect to provide more granular guidance."
But Jefferies analyst Brent Thill in a report said that's not likely.
"While she provided some annual guide when at Eli Lilly, we do not expect any material change to Google's guidance approach."
Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black said in a report: "We think the company could provide incremental commentary on the call around operating leverage expectations for 2024/25 and/or some incremental disclosure on expense items driven by the (artificial intelligence) buildout in 2024/2025."
Former Google CFO Ruth Porat has taken a new role as president and chief investment officer. Part of Porat's legacy is big buybacks of Google stock.
Google Earnings Estimates
For Q3, analysts estimate Google earnings of $1.84 per share, up 19%. Revenue is expected to rise 13% to $86.4 billion. Cloud computing revenue is expected to grow 29% to $10.87 billion.
Meanwhile, Google stock has gained nearly 18% in 2025. But it underperformed in the September quarter amid concern over Department of Justice antitrust lawsuits. It also faces new competition in internet search from companies such as OpenAI and Perplexity.
Search engine Perplexity is in fundraising talks and aims to raise approximately $500 million at an $8 billion valuation. That more than doubles its $3 billion valuation from this summer, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
"With Google, we see a stock that has underperformed intra-quarter, with relatively modest Street expectations for Q3," said Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney in a report. "The stock trades at 19 times price-to-earnings and remains close to a trough multiple, implying the potential for near-term upside on positive estimates revisions, even with the long-term overhang associated with the DOJ trials."
Google AI Overviews Rolling Out
Further, Google has embedded its Gemini AI model tools and chatbot AI technology into its search engine. What's more, Google began widely deploying AI Overviews (links to related resources) in the U.S. in mid-May, with conversational summaries topping links for many search queries.
On the Q3 Google earnings call, Wall Street analysts will be looking for a management update on how AI Overviews is impacting search advertising revenue.
Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
