Google is slipping ahead of earnings (GOOG, GOOGL)

pulse

February 1, 2018 7:56 PM

Shares of Alphabet's Google were flat on Wednesday afternoon as investors await a reckoning from the company's handling of abuse on YouTube and other platforms.

Investors are waiting to see how the company will handle abuse across some of its platforms.
They also want to see if its other divisions, like self-driving cars and health and life sciences, will be profitable.

Shares of Alphabet's Google were flat at $174.80 ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report, which is due out after the bell on Thursday.

Though most investors see a knock-out quarter for the Silicon Valley firm, some market participants are concerned about how the company has handled abuse across some of its platforms, including child abuse and extremist videos on YouTube, fake news in Google search results, and big YouTube celebrities posting tasteless content that advertisers may not like.

The company has maintained that it will keep tweaking its artificial intelligence to weed out those abuses. Google also said it would hire up to 10,000 human moderators to address the concerns.

The search giant has poured a lot of money into "Other Bets" projects, such as Waymo for self-driving cars, Nest for connected home products, and Verily for health and life sciences. Investors want to see significant profits from these ventures.

Still, the company's hardware products and its jump into more AI and voice-controlled computing may help the company keep its profits high or at least beat Wall Street expectations.

It's shares were up 9.5% for the year.

pulse