Alphabet IncGOOGTOP PICKMar 03, 2025Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 07, 2026. Market Open.
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%.
A year ago, consensus was that Search was going to die. Seems ridiculous now. Gemini is overtaking ChatGPT. Data centre business is growing faster than before. Still not that expensive. He hasn't sold any shares yet, but may take some off the table from the long-term holding and put toward one of the Mag 7 laggards.
Shares are down after the company reported in mid-February, even though its numbers were strong. EPS rose 31% on 13% revenue growth in Q4-2024 and beat, though revenue missed. Consolidated net revenue climbed 13% over the year, driven by ad revenues rising 10.6%, thanks to growth in search advertising and near-14% growth in YouTube ads. Meanwhile, Google Cloud enjoyed 30% revenue growth, bettering 26% from a year earlier, but slowing from 35% in Q3-2024.