Stock price when the opinion was issued
Some regulatory risks have now lifted. Still a decent valuation of 23x forward PE, discount to mega-cap peers. Continues to dominate digital ad space. Applying generative AI across the board. Cloud's a bit behind MSFT and AWS, but the entire space is growing so revenues are too. $100B in cash reserves gives lots of options.
It has been allowed to keep Chrome so that decision is good for the company. The legal system in the U.S. can't keep up with the fast pace in the market place, especially tech. The anti-trust laws were created over 100 years ago. Google hasn't raised or lowered prices and lots of it is free.
A 2 to 3 year timeline is the sweet spot for a long term investor. It is generally easier to form a thesis over three years. Acceleration is remarkable and no case has been made for a monopoly. Google can compete on the AI front and there is not as much focus on the search component. The value of the sum of its parts is greater than people realize.
Alphabet is known for pouring significant capital into R&D, so they will likely master ChatGPT and even make further inroads in AI, but the market will need to wait. In the meantime, the numbers have been mixed at Alphabet, with GOOG missing three of its last four quarters. Its PE has returned to early-2021 levels at 27.55x (vs. 20.27x a year ago) as shares have climbed 40% so far this year, an increase on par with Apple and Microsoft. A recession would dampen Alphabet’s digital ad business, but the company is sitting on a pile of cash and carries no debt. Nice buffer. Long-term, this is solid company. Read Top 3 AI Stocks for our full analysis.