Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported stellar, above-expectations quarterly results yesterday after market close. One would have thought that this company, in the midst of U.S. economic uncertainty, would have reported a mediocre quarter at best, but that wasn't the case. Apple outpaced expectations by $0.11 per share, shipped more Mac computers than during any quarter in its history, and saw a 38% revenue jump from the year-ago quarter.

As a nice reward for such a stellar quarter, the market took Apple out behind the woodshed and gave it a sound whipping. The reason? Apple's murky guidance for the fourth quarter. This from a company that almost always shoots low with guidance only to blow the numbers away. Add that to ongoing concern over the health of CEO Steve Jobs and you have a 10% drop in AAPL shares before the market opened this morning.

Is Apple the victim of outsized expectations? You bet. Just like Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) the other day -- which also reported a fantastic quarter but saw its shares pummeled right after results were announced -- Apple may be losing the ability to impress. In reality, both companies are doing excellent business in the face of gas and energy price spikes in addition to a six-month string of job losses in the U.S. Yet, the market slapped huge losses on both stocks based on what could be considered shaky speculation for future growth prospects.

On the other hand, Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) saw stock gains after reporting a better-than-expected $2.5 billion dollar quarterly loss last week. Talk about twisted.

Will Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) be able to stay afloat with its track record of good earnings reports this Thursday when it reports Q2 numbers? The internet search and advertising giant is expected to have a 33% lift over the year-ago quarter. To me, that sounds like an unstoppable freight train like it has for a few years now.

Google's growth means that the addiction many of us have to finding information anywhere at any time is playing right into Google's mantra of having universally-accessible information at our fingertips anywhere, with any device. Think the U.S. economy is affecting ad spending on Google? If analyst predictions are right this Thursday after the bell, you may be proved wrong.

The 25-analyst estimate is for a $4/share profit for Google. Any tech company would love to have that figure. The company, which has partnered with competitor Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and rules many of the markets it competes in (specifically, search and advertising), still has not found an anchor to keep it grounded in terms of making money. Although most still comes from search text advertising, will that growth slow down in the near future? The more that's been speculated in the recent past, the more it hasn't turned out that way.

Please join me later today when I will be live blogging Google's earnings:
Where: Google Earnings: Live Blog
When: 4:00pm EST


If IBM (NYSE: IBM) gives us any clue as to the technology sector's ability to maintain insulation from the financial chaos we have been dealing with, we may see a glorious rebound for Google shareholders. But remember: IBM actually sells tangible products and services that can be bought with non-dollar currencies. In yesterday's earnings release, IBM Global services was reported as the top revenue generator for the period. So, it is possible that the strength of foreign currencies helped to provide a good portion of IBM's profits.

Perhaps Google will be able to capitalize on some of the currency exchange benefit; but probably not with any real significance. This is just one of the line items that we are going to find out after the close.

With Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) reporting record quarterly revenue yesterday, the company's shares are now sitting at a touch under $640 as of yesterday afternoon. Oddly, Google shares did not spike up in after-hours trading on Thursday afternoon after yet another stupendous quarter for the company, with recession and economic fears still in the minds of some investors, even with Google continuing to conquer the internet world.

But at the current share price level, would Google be willing to split its shares (5-for-1, perhaps) in order to make its listed instruments more accessible to non-institutional investors? Google's IPO price in August 2004 of $85 per share was ratcheted down from over $100 for just this reason, and the shares were sold under dutch auction format in order to give anyone and everyone access to them right on IPO day. Could Google be wanting to revive some of that nostalgia now that its shares are in the stratosphere?

Although Google shares closed at under $640 yesterday, premarket trading this morning is looking at Google shares sitting at $653 (up over 2%), and analysts are raising targets -- again -- to the tune of $720 and even $900. Google's shares have been on a virtual roller coaster in the last 16 hours, and today's action will see more of the same. A share split for Google would also relieve some of the public tension (and attention) on the valuation perception of a single share of Google stock, which some say is bad for the company and the sector (let's call it "hype days"). Where do you sit? Would a split be a good thing for the company and the internet sector as a whole? Or, possibly more importantly, is Google looking for more retail ownership of its shares?

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is set to release its Q2 earnings today at 4:30pm EST, and from all indications, the internet search leader will have another splendid quarter. Indeed, consensus estimates for quarterly earnings are sitting right at $3.10 EPS, a growth figure of over 40% from the year-ago quarter.

Can Google match this expectation? It has not had a problem before, and it seems the company outdoes itself every single quarter, one after the other. What is fueling all this earnings growth? Is it just text-based advertising, Google's great strength? Or is Google making more money with some of its recently acquired properties?

Something I have said for years now is that Google's growth is grand, but can't continue over and over into the stratosphere on the back of one revenue source: text ads. The company's recent rash of high-profile acquisitions has sent a signal that it wants to be the leader in the search business across all platforms, devices and types of content. It needs to monetize all that activity as well, and if it can figure out how, there will be no stopping Google. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), on the other hand, has still not been able to figure this out, but it has made baby steps in that arena.

Join me here at 4:30pm EST for the Google Q2 liveblog. It should be interesting, to say the least.

With Google market watchers in a subdued but apparent fever pitch about what the world's leading Internet advertising company is going to announce today in relation to revenues and profit, we're just about set to start live coverage for Google's third-quarter earnings conference, which will be broadcast live over the Internet here.

With that short and sweet introduction complete, let's roll, shall we? Below you'll see a real-time updated timeline of Google's latest quarterly results, which will be followed by an analysts Q&A session -- and those are always enlightening in good and bad ways based on the analyst. Heh.

All times below are in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT):

1:32pm -- We're waiting with the patience of the world, and along with everyone else...

1:35pm -- while we wait, let's look at Q3 numbers here. Looks like $2.69 billion in Q3 revenue, up 70% over last year. Nice.

1:38pm -- we are under way -- Eric, Sergey, Larry, Jon, George and Omid are up to bat first....let's roll.

1:40pm -- CEO Eric Schmit (Eric) is up talking about international growth being a bigger surprise this past quarter. Adobe, Intuit, Dell, MTV Networks, MySpace.com and YouTube partnerships are all being referenced as Eric talks about the strength of results.

1:43pm -- CFO George Reyes (George) is talking about revenues diversified through channels (AdSense, AdWords, etc.) cross-referenced against global regions. It sounds like international growth is going very well as I'm listening to George. Total Acquisition Costs (TAC) across Google's partners is now being talked about as well.

With Google set to report earnings this Thursday at 1:30 p.m. PDT (4:30 ET), what kind of financial results are in order this week? Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), located in Mountain View, Calif., is widely expected by the analysts community to report earnings per share of $2.42, a sharp rise from $1.51 per share earning from a year ago. Google, the financial reporting maverick that it is, does not provide financial projections itself.

If earnings beat expectations by just a penny, look for GOOG shares to go through the roof again, as they have done in the last four weeks after settling down below the $400 barrier for some time, then rising above that barrier and staying there now for a while.

If Google can continue to turn eyeballs into advertising revenues that consistently beat rivals Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT), look for Google to continue riding the wave of success it currently enjoys, although my ongoing concern of revenue diversification still stands until Google can prove that it can make money outside of pure Internet search.

So far, it has not needed this, but someday it might, and the groundwork needs to begin now for that day. On Thursday's earnings call -- which I will be live-blogging right here -- we'll all see how Google's magic has performed this past quarter.

Second quarter earnings exceeded expectations, with $2.455 billion in total revenue for the quarter (up 77% year-over-year) and $2.33 earnings per diluted share. After the bell, investors seemed happy; the stock was recovering from its intraday drop of $11.88, although as the minutes ticked by, the recovery was less and less.

It will be interesting to watch as investors digest the report, and listen to the earnings conference call. I've just started listening, and it's a numbers-rattle-off right now.

4:41 p.m. -- Sergey Brin begins the call, talking about the details of the earnings report. He says that the company noted earlier that capex would be higher, as a percentage, than it was last year, and it continues to be, up to 12% of revenue from 10% last year -- that's a lot of dollars given the huge growth in revenue. Headcount was up over 1,000 people, mostly in Ireland and India.

4:44 p.m. -- Larry Page takes over to talk about the warmer, fuzzier parts of the business. He focuses on Google Checkout, which is hoped to help advertisers generate more sales. He says that Google's option will help advertisers capture those customers who abandon their shopping carts, and generate higher clickthroughs. He says they are "generating healthy adoption rates" including Bluefly, Starbucks, and more.

4:48 p.m. -- Page thinks this is one of the most exciting products the company has generated to date, and "hopes" it will bring revenues. Naturally investors want this: 99% of Google's revenues, healthy as they are, are still coming from search advertising.

Google's earnings exceeded expectations for the second quarter, with $721.1 million on revenue of $2.455 billion. At first, the investors were exultant, and the stock recovered from its $11.88 fall on the day.

However, Sheldon Liber and I have been eagerly watching the stock progress in after-hours trading. The stock had almost reversed all its losses for the day a few minutes after the announcement, then dropped again by about 4:45 p.m. But by the time we published this post at 4:50, the losses had once again been mostly erased and the stock hovered around $394. We'll see how the call affects investors' feelings...