Alphabet IncGOOGPARTIAL BUYJun 19, 2018Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 31, 2026. Market Open.
That was an eye-opener. The Mag 7 has peaked, and it could be a multi-year peak due to the negative free cash flow. GOOG is one of the winners in AI. Once the PE declines or AI spending slows, the stock could react better. The street would be very disappointed if only the core businesses of the Mag 7 were generating free cash flow growth and AI was not. It's tough to look through AI spend and invest the Mag 7 which remain great companies, but now face the biggest risk in years.
He trimmed a little early this year, but likes it. Their relationship with the customer is strong across its platform. Secondly, growth is remarkable. Also, the valuation is reasonable. Their AI model is not the best, but it's competitive. Can you keep your eyeballs on a Google product? Yes. Gemini is integrated in their search, so that removes the threat to their search.
Fears that AI would eat its lunch. Harder for Anthropic to monetize a new tool than for GOOG to take AI and apply it to a business model that it already monetizes. Muscle memory of the populace gravitates to GOOG to find information. Probably thrives in the new AI world, until something more disruptive comes along.
AI monetization is happening, and AI Mode has been a game changer. Stronger cloud growth (revenue grew 63% YOY last quarter, tremendous), broader monetization across platforms. Search and advertising remain strong, lots of cashflow. Also a great ecosystem.
Good growth, but relatively decent valuation. Yield is 0.25%.
Entry point now? The way to think about it is that it’s like a utility. One of their favourite technology investments. When the name is synonymous with the task, that’s a dominant position. Stock has had a great run, but it’s not expensive at 16-17x PE. They’re innovating, investing in all kinds of businesses, they have YouTube which isn’t fully monetized yet. Market pullback is a good time to look at it, but it’s also a difficult market. A great company. You could start a position now and take a very long-term view. Comfortable it’ll be higher in 5-10 years.