Earnings due from tech giants

Tech giants Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, eBay and Intel will all be announcing financial results this week, with upward trends expected to continue.

Technology has been one of the best performing sectors this year, up a massive 33 per cent, with impressive gains driven by big names such as Hewlett Packard which rebounded from a tough 2012 to post a market-crushing 68 per cent return in the first half.

Google target
Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini has reiterated a neutral rating and $965 price target on Google.

The company is expected to report consolidated revenue of $14.35 billion, with stand-alone revenue of $13.32 billion.

Last quarter the search engine company posted consolidated revenues of $13.97 billion, an increase of 31 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2012.

Microsoft will publish fiscal year 2013 fourth-quarter financial results after market close on Thursday.

The software multinational had its "equal weight" rating reaffirmed by analysts at Barclays Capital last week, who currently have a $35 target price on the company's stock.

Analysts expect that Microsoft will post $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the current fiscal year.

Internet company Yahoo, which has beaten analyst expectations in each of the last four quarters by an average of 34 per cent, is also likely to report a solid performance, with 5 per cent earnings growth in 2013 and additional 13 per cent earnings growth in 2014.

eBay guidance
Online auction company eBay meanwhile has set its Q2 guidance at $0.61-0.63 EPS and its FY13 guidance at $2.70-2.75 EPS.

Analysts expect that eBay will post $2.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst consensus for Intel’s second quarter is that better gross margins will offset weaker revenue.

However, earnings per share are forecast to be $0.39 on $12.89 billion in revenues for expected year-over-year declines of 32 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

Evercore Partners last week downgraded PC company Intel from equal weight to underweight.