All eyes will be on Google as it reports after the bell today and once again I’ll be holding onto my core position for the long haul. Following the sell off last quarter I said it was a buy opportunity and any selling after its report tonight will most likely offer the same kind of opportunity.

The earnings "whisper" call is for an EPS of 3.95/share, which would result in a 51% increase in earnings over the year ago quarter. That’s certainly not out of reach for Google but is well above consensus estimates of 3.26/share [edit: that includes an option expense so consensus was 3.77]. As I’ve said before it’s the whisper number that matters and most stocks sell off if they beat the consensus but miss on the whisper. Google has had a great run over the past several weeks but I think if they can match or beat that whisper it will run after the bell. There is also some concern about rising costs, so if Google shows this quarter that they eased up on the hiring frenzy and in fact the bonus accrual costs of last quarter were a one time event, then I expect some sort of relief rally.

I’ll be all over the earnings report like flies on a pile of doo again this quarter and will have a full report for you tonight or way too early in the morning so be sure to keep an eye on the blog.

Update:  Google reports 3.91, so not a blow out quarter (and below the whisper number) but at first glance very strong results once again.  Hiring still appears rampant but we’ll have to see what they say in the conference call.  I would expect Google weakness to continue tomorrow  but nothing to be concerned about.  More details later.