Call it a comeback? Google earnings due

From CNET News.com: With the online ad business appearing to have collected itself at the bottom of the ravine, all eyes will be on Google's earnings report Thursday to see if it has figured out where the path back to the top starts.

Investors are feeling good about Google in the run-up to Thursday's third-quarter earnings conference call, sending the stock to a 52-week high on Tuesday at $527.46 before it settled back down to $526.11 at the close of trading. Five prominent financial analysts raised their expectations for Google's stock Monday amid a collective feeling that advertisers have started to finally increase their spending after sitting on their wallets for about a year.

Last week Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that not only are things picking up in the U.S., but Europe has started to get its groove back ahead of the expected timeline. Google sales representatives gathered in New York last week were said to be "very, very positive."

As a whole, the financial community is expecting Google to record $4.23 billion in net revenue--gross revenue minus traffic acquisition costs paid to Google partners--and earnings per share of $5.39 for the period that ended in September. That would imply a revenue increase of 4 percent compared to last year, a far cry from the numbers Google used to put up but in line with its recessionary performance.

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