Opinions Shane Obata
Alphabet IncGOOGPAST TOP PICKMay 29, 2025
Shane ObataStock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 28, 2026. Market Open.
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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.
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Premium contentIn the last quarter, the company reported 9.11 USD per share, beating the 2.88 USD estimate by 216.66%. Revenue for the same period reached 119.80 B USD, despite the estimate of 117.06 B USD. For the next quarter, analysts expect 3.02 USD in earnings per share and 124.53 B USD in revenue. Social media mentions are up 405% in the past 24h.
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.
Julien Nono-Womdim
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.
A Hold for him today instead of a Buy, just on valuation (~30x PE). Very robust growth outlook. To add, wait for a bit of a pullback -- the potential for valuation upside gives you less risk, and you can't expect multiple expansion from current price point.
Chris BlumasFantastic year. Recently pulled a bit back from peak. Gemini has been exceptional. Ancillary assets deserve attention. Great long-term hold.
John ZechnerAI 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%.
Stan WongStill one of the highest-quality businesses in the world. Wide range of opportunities despite the runup. Cloud has been doing extremely well. Reasonable valuation. 9/10 on fundamentals. Regulatory scrutiny a potential risk. Massive user base, proprietary data.
(Analysts’ price target is $430.00)
Brianne GardnerFirst quarter since Covid it didn't buy back stock. Raised capex by $5B. Gemini is outstanding, leading it to win at Search as well as to concrete monetization. Only trading at 22x PE for 2028 and 17% growth. Stock still works, more to go.
Greg NewmanA 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.
Martin Cobb, ASIP
Mixed feelings on this one. Warning: rant ahead. Years ago they thought (and still sort of think) that GOOG had all the pieces to win AI. Lots of platforms and good data. Difficulty is that may not matter because it needs to figure out where it's going to fit in AI.
ChapGPT has become synonymous with AI, and you could argue it's won the consumer subscription game already. Doesn't see anyone displacing MSFT on enterprise solutions; he tried Copilot, and it's still bad, but that doesn't matter because we're all held captive. MSFT is set to win enterprise AI as its AI improves over time.
So where does GOOG fit? He's a big Google fan, and the only person he knows with a Pixel phone. Search is the crown jewel, and such a big part of the overall business. Will they have to cannibalize themselves to win in AI? Competition has never been higher for Search. Older folks say "googling", but young people don't. They "search", and they don't care where they're doing it.
Can still deliver decent results, but the multiple will be capped at the very least. Cheap at the surface level, but there are reasons for that. He's still comfortable holding. Great job in Gemini, for example, but it needs to be monetized. Fun fact: Between ads and subscriptions, YouTube is bigger than NFLX.