Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft may not live up to the massive profit of last year, but they will still bring in plenty of cash as more than a third of the S&P 500 reports earnings this week.
Google parent company Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -4.15% GOOG, -4.26%, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -2.66%, Apple Inc. AAPL, -2.78%, Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. FB, -2.11% and Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -2.41% collectively put up profit and revenue in 2021 that more closely resemble a national gross domestic product than the work of a quintet of companies. With $320 billion in profit and $1.4 trillion in sales in a calendar year that included the worst inflation in the U.S.
That boom could be at an end, however, a factor in the first quarter’s tech-stock reversal. Only Microsoft is expected to appreciably increase profit from the same quarter a year ago when the five companies report earnings this week, though its $1.6 billion profit increase could paper over the decreases analysts expect for the others.
If profit actually falls, of course; these companies have been destroying expectations for the length of the pandemic. Google is an extreme example — the search giant has beaten the consensus earnings estimate in seven consecutive quarters, and by double-digit percentages each time, according to FactSet. Amazon has beaten profit estimates in six those seven quarters, twice by more than 500%, including last quarter’s 668.2% surprise that was driven by Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN, -0.44%.
Apple earnings preview: Tim Cook gave investors more than $100 billion last year — how much more is coming? The five Big Tech companies will be the marquee highlights of the afternoon earnings parade this week, with Google and Microsoft reporting Tuesday, Facebook on Wednesday and Apple joining Amazon on Thursday. They will be far from alone, however: There are 175 S&P 500 companies expected to report before the market opens on Friday, 35% of the index, while 13 of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.82% components are on the docket.
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