Stock price when the opinion was issued
When you buy GOOG, you get Waymo for free. Waymo is actually ahead of where TSLA is on robotaxis. 17-18x forward PE. The only Mag 7 he owns. By far the cheapest. Concerns about AI engines taking away its core Search business, but no evidence of that yet. Investing heavily in R&D to protect its assets. One of the world's great business models.
The fear about them was that AI will eat into GOOG's search market share. Yes, AI will, but the overall search market will likely grow. So, GOOG's market share could shrink, but it's search business could still grow. He's bullish. Also, GOOG has a partnership with Uber in self-driving cars, an exciting, growing business. Third, GOOG owns YouTube which dominates the streaming market by far, bigger than Netflix.
Doesn't own it, because there's a forecast of a 25% drop in 2026 in single search engine queries. In contrasts, Meta has 90% margins in their single search engine queries. Even if GOOG does well in AI and cloud, those are not as profitable as the main search business. Decent earnings growth ahead, but their earnings are more at risk. Instead of Google, she uses chatGPT and other methods to search.
The street expects 11% and 16% revenue and earnings growth. Long-term, GOOG is the most vertically integrated to win. Think of Gmail, Google calendar, YouTube and Google search. Google has all our data and can make a powerful AI assistant. The key thing is how GOOG will monetize their AI (whereas Meta has made that clear).
The numbers reported this week were really good. YouTube pulled in $10B in ad revenue. Holds assets it hasn't even monetized yet. Search is at risk, and the multiple reflects that. He's watching all the AI plays to see how they monetize.
He'd pick this one, for at least a trade. Only one of the Mag 7 below the market multiple.
In his momentum mandate. Reported 2 days ago and beat on sales, earnings, and other key performance metrics. Earnings up ~22%, sales up 15%. Acceleration of cloud computing, now ~$50B a year and probably the fastest-growing part of the business. Stepping up capital spending on the AI arms race, yet also authorized to buy back $70B in stock. Very cash-generative.
Trying to get its head around monetizing AI in Search, and he thinks they will.
Lots of hidden value. Negativity on the anti-trust case and impact of AI on Search. Such a premier destination for online advertising. Business fundamentals still very strong. Generates a ton of cash. No loss of Search market share. Unique AI capabilities. Trades at 20x PE, which doesn't include the extra cash on its balance sheet, cloud services, or other subsidiaries. Strong buy today. Yield is 0.48%.
(Analysts’ price target is $201.40)