Evercore ISI analyst Kirk Materne attributes today's weakness in LiveRamp (RAMP) shares to an Adweek article driving speculation that changes in Google's (GOOGL) practices related to third-party cookie tracking could impact LiveRamp's business. However, Materne said the company's value proposition is about helping its customers solve identity resolution problems and cookies "are just one piece of the puzzle." After speaking with LiveRamp management about the issue, the analyst highlights that "this is not new news" to the company and he said the most likely scenario is that Google moves away from a third-party cookie to a different identifier, which would have no impact on LiveRamp's business. In a worst case scenario, which Materne views as "highly unlikely," Google's changes create a near-term pause in digital ad spending, which could potentially create some near-term noise for LiveRamp but could actually benefit its long-term value proposition as spending would move from programmatic to social/mobile and put more focus on a broader strategy, he tells investors. Materne keeps an Outperform rating on LiveRamp and views the pullback as presenting an attractive entry point.

Check out this evening's top movers from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly. HIGHER AFTER EARNINGSSnap (SNAP) up... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.  1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, is scheduled to report first quarter 2024 results after the market close on Thursday, April 25, with a conference call scheduled for 4:30 pm Eastern Time. What to watch... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Pre-earnings options volume in Alphabet Class A is 1.4x normal with calls leading puts 7:6. Implied volatility suggests the market is anticipating a move near 4.9%, or $7.65, after results are released. Median move over the past eight quarters is 6.6%.

Meta (META), Google (GOOGL), Snap (SNAP), and Amazon (AMZN) all benefit from the U.S.' ban of TikTok, The Washington Post's Will Oremus reports. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticized TikTok's Chinese roots in 2019, part of Meta's broader campaign, Oremus writes. Reference Link