Alphabet reports after the bell

Stephen Lam | Reuters

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks onstage during the annual Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, May 8, 2018.

Analysts are turning their attention to another so-called FANG stock as Alphabet reports after the bell Monday. Most remain bullish and expect Alphabet to be carried by strong advertising revenue. Other things analysts will be watching for include key metrics on search, Youtube, Waymo, and any comments on regulation.

Shares of the internet giant rose more than 1.5 percent to $1131.56 on Monday, bringing its gain for the year to 8 percent.

Barclays Ross Sandler thinks Alphabet’s stock performance could be something to watch, saying, “We think 2019 could be a better year for GOOGL shares than 2018’s flat performance.”

Baird analyst Colin Sebastian calls Alphabet a top pick for the year and believes cloud expansion, YouTube growth and strong search during macroeconomic headwinds will help the stock this year.

Under new Google cloud boss Thomas Kurian, Sebastian expects a, “meaningful acquisition,” and that a “Flexible balance sheet allows Google Cloud to go elephant hunting.”

Some analysts were more cautious than others.

“We have somewhat greater concerns about growth into 2019 due to Amazon’s ad business and GOOGL’s large base,” said J.P. Morgan’s Doug Anmuth, who is staying overweight into Alphabet’s earnings report regardless.

Justin Post from Bank of America has a few concerns, but “overall, we like the set up into the print given Amazon and regulatory concerns, margin comps, valuation and YTD stock underperformance..”

In his preview cheat sheet note to clients, RBC’s Mark Mahaney said, “We believe Street estimates for Q4 are relatively reasonable on both the top line and the bottom line.”

Here’s what else analysts expect: