Facebook is preparing to reveal the damage caused by recent data scandals on Wednesday, in a week which will also see Amazon and Google's parent Alphabet lift the lid on their latest figures.
Just weeks after the news broke that Cambridge Analytica had potentially used data mined from Facebook without users' knowledge to influence elections, Facebook is releasing its first quarter results after US market close on Wednesday.
While the social media giant's boss Mark Zuckerberg has been grilled by US politicians, analysts have been pushing down their expectations for the firm.
Read more: Facebook latest: Zuckerberg says his data was included in the Cambridge Analytica breach
According to a consensus compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, analysts expect Facebook to report earnings of just $11.42bn – down from $12.97bn the previous quarter but still above the $8.03bn in the same period a year ago.
If the estimates are right, this will be the first time Facebook has seen a quarter-on-quarter reduction in revenue since the beginning of 2017.
Yet a number of analysts believe the negativity surrounding Facebook's privacy has already been baked into the share price, which has taken a knock of around 15 per cent since the Cambridge Analytica news emerged.
In a note on advertising company Publicis last week, Liberum analysts said there were "no signs that advertisers are pulling money out of Facebook", while trader Terry Allen wrote on a Seeking Alpha blog that Facebook's earnings estimates were "clearly well below where they should be" and that "actual results should blow [the market] away".
Amazon
Meanwhile Amazon will be facing its own issues come Thursday, when it will push out its first quarter results.
Revenue is expected to come in at $49.9bn, a healthy way above the $35.7bn reported in the same period last year, according to consensus figures.
In a month that has seen chief executive Jeff Bezos finally reveal how many Amazon Prime subscribers the company has (more than 100m), analysts have in fact slashed their earnings per share estimates to $1.22 even as they have lifted revenue expectations by around three per cent.
Alphabet
Google's parent company Alphabet, however, will kick off the major US tech results this week announcing its first quarter figures tomorrow.
Analysts are expecting revenue to reach $30.28bn, up from last year's $24.75bn, with earnings per share dropping from the first quarter of last year's $10.01 to $9.28.
Google's rising traffic acquisition cost, which is what it pays partner websites to carry adverts, has been rising and may remain a concern for investors.
Added to that, Alphabet will be making a number of minor changes to how it reports – including that it will now have to value any stakes which it holds in private companies.
This means that Alphabet's stake in companies such as Uber, which has increased in value since the firm invested, will now appear on the income statement – and could lend a hefty boost to earnings.
Read more: Google paid UK workers an average of £200,000 last year
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