Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), the parent company of Google, is scheduled to report results of its second fiscal quarter after the market close on Tuesday, July 27, with a conference call scheduled for 4:30 pm ET. What to watch for:

1. TARGETS UPPED AHEAD OF EARNINGS: Credit Suisse analyst Stephen Ju raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $3,350 from $2,755, while keeping an Outperform rating on the shares ahead of quarterly results. Given Google's global footprint, the analyst believes that nearly all advertising sectors are on pace to exceed the firm's expectations for the second quarter.

Last week, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill also raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $2,950 from $2,850, keeping a Buy rating on the shares ahead of earnings season from the digital ads group. The analyst expects revenue beats "across the board," but with the digital ad peer group up 27% year-to-date he favors selectivity and would own Facebook (FB) and Alphabet.

2. REGULATORY RISK: In the European Commission's recent daily news bulletin, the agency said, "Consumers need to know how the results of their search in Google's online search engine are ranked and if payments may influence the ranking. The prices of flights and hotels showcased on Google should be final and include fees or taxes that can reasonably be calculated in advance. In addition, Google should revise the standard terms of Google Store, because the Consumer Protection Cooperation network found that, in some cases, there is a significant imbalance of rights between the trader and the consumer to the detriment of the latter. Furthermore, when the Consumer Authorities report content in breach of consumer protection rules, Google should remove or disable access to such content faster...Google is expected to follow up and communicate changes in its practices to the Commission and the CPC authorities within the next two months… National authorities may ultimately decide to impose sanctions."

Meanwhile, Reuters' Foo Yun Chee reported that Google intends to fight the $5.15B fine the EU imposed on the search giant at a hearing on September 27. Google will make its case in front of Europe's second-highest court, the Luxembourg-based General Court, the publication noted.

Earlier this month, New York Attorney General Letitia James said she is co-leading a bipartisan coalition of 37 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against Google for its "illegal and anticompetitive conduct that has sought to maintain the company's monopoly power in the mobile app distribution and in-app payment processing markets." "Through a series of exclusionary contracts and other anticompetitive conduct in the Google Play Store, Google has deprived Android device users of robust competition that could lead to greater choice and innovation, as well as significantly lower prices for mobile apps," James' office said in a statement. "Attorney General James and the coalition - co-led by the attorneys general of Utah, North Carolina, and Tennessee - also accuse Google of requiring app developers selling in-app digital content through apps purchased via Google's Play Store to use Google Billing as a middleman, forcing app consumers to pay Google's commission - up to 30 percent - indefinitely."

Wilson White, Google's Senior Director of Public Policy, said in a blog post that, "We built Android to create more choices in mobile technology. Today, anyone, including our competitors, can customize and build devices with the Android operating system - for free. We also built an app store, Google Play, that helps people download apps on their devices. If you don't find the app you're looking for in Google Play, you can choose to download the app from a rival app store or directly from a developer's website... So it's strange that a group of state attorneys general chose to file a lawsuit attacking a system that provides more openness and choice than others. This complaint mimics a similarly meritless lawsuit filed by the large app developer Epic Games, which has benefited from Android's openness by distributing its Fortnite app outside of Google Play. The complaint limits its definition of the app marketplace to Android devices only. This completely ignores the competition we face from other platforms such as Apple's [AAPL] incredibly successful app store, which accounts for the majority of mobile app store revenues according to third-party estimates."

3. GOOGLE THIRD-PARTY COOKIE PHASE OUT DELAY: Google has announced a timeline for Chrome's plan to phase out support for third-party cookies. "While there's considerable progress with this initiative, it's become clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right...Today, Chrome and others have offered more than 30 proposals, and four of those proposals are available in origin trials. For Chrome, specifically, our goal is to have the key technologies deployed by late 2022 for the developer community to start adopting them. Subject to our engagement with the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority and in line with the commitments we have offered, Chrome could then phase out third-party cookies over a three-month period, starting in mid-2023 and ending in late 2023."