Alphabet Inc (GOOG)

Had a flat period then it broke out. It has been consolidating. It looks positive technically.

This is doing well, mainly more recently because they have a new CFO that is really disciplined in terms of bringing value to the stocks. He doesn’t see selling this anytime soon.

GoogleL is the place you want to be. This is the A stock and it comes without voting rights. This one has been doing slightly better.

The premise of what they are doing with Alphabet will benefit the shareholders. There have been a number of changes that have happened within the last 3-4 months. New CFO has made the company a little bit more investor friendly. They now have to justify how much money they are spending, as well as how much money they are losing on these ventures. They still dominate the search business. YouTube is becoming a bigger and bigger factor in the entertainment side of the business.

(A Top Pick Sept 16/14. Up 12.04%.) This is a dominant player in so many different technologies, that you have to own these kinds of companies. Trading at a very, very reasonable multiple and growing like stink. Between Apple and this company, they have every single mobile subscriber in the world, in one way or another.

There have been a number of changes to the company in terms of structure. The company will now be called Alphabet, and Google is a division of Alphabet. It is still a company that is involved in Search. They have been successful in monetizing some of their initiatives, most particular YouTube, and have a number of other things that the market is coming to believe will be able to be monetized. Also, have a new CFO that has a more traditional background, and the street likes that. The one thing investors were nervous about was the unpredictability of Google.

He would continue to hold this one. This is a fantastic franchise. They own search and it is trading at a market multiple. The growth is there.

Disclaimer: His son works as software engineer at Google. Recently, Google's stock had a big jump after they announced their quarterly results. He thinks it is still a very, very interesting stock. Google is a wild card because you don't know what they will do next. They are always coming out with fabulous products, like driverless cars. They are an innovative company with lots of cash. They keep making money on advertising and the search. He is a happy holder of this stock.

A very hard thing to quantify because of risks of Europe and antitrust. A great franchise. The risk you have is that it is so dominant in its category that it gets penalized or broken up or something the way Microsoft (MSFT-Q) did 10-15 years ago. Doesn’t think Europe should do anything in the way of antitrust, and if they don’t it is a great buy.

(A Top Pick June 2/14. Down 4.96%.) There has been a lot of negative opinion on this recently, but it reminds him of Microsoft when it was in the mid-$20 and people were saying there was no more growth. This hasn’t even slowed down its earnings growth. The catalyst could be some of their outside assets, such as the Android operating system, which owns 70% of the smart phone market globally. He likes this and thinks it is a great long-term story.

(A Top Pick June 24/14. Down 2.55%.) This seems to be a tech name that has taken the year off. He still likes it. Trading at 19X Forward Price Earnings with a 17% expected long-term growth. PEG ratio is just over 1 which offers pretty good value. They are putting a lot of money into R&D. A lot of things are happening. They are monetizing YouTube, getting into glasses, etc., etc.

This has really lagged large cap tech. A good name for Internet exposure. They are the leader in online search. She feels online advertising is going to be going through a secular growth phase for many years to come. The stock has lagged because mobile has been growing faster than desktop, and Facebook (FB-Q) has been gaining share. But she feels the whole media channel has a lot more room to grow, and there is more than enough ad dollars for both companies to participate in.

(A Top Pick June 30/14. Down 7.27%.) He is disappointed. It has more money in the bank this year than last year. Profits are up and it is trading at a reasonable valuation. People are concerned about their strategies and how other companies are earning more advertising revenues in native apps. They are also disappointed that the company is not using its YouTube app fast or aggressively enough compared to Facebook (FB-Q). Profits are still growing at about 20% and trading at 17X earnings. Has dominant market share in its businesses. Also, dealing with the European antitrust investigation, which he thinks they will likely move through, but will probably cost them some money. Also, feel investors are concerned about the company’s ability to grow rapidly in the Chinese market, where most of their applications are blocked by Chinese authorities.

(A Top Pick May 6/14. Up 5.57%.) Sold this at a profit of about 18%-19%. There is a little bit of criticism that they are not focusing on their core business, but are doing some sort of social activism research and investing. The Google “L” is the voting and this is a way to play it. It is now starting to break away from the GOOG. He is looking to get back into this name as some point.

A really strong franchise. When people want to search, this is the go to place to do it. It has had a pretty good run in the last year and it might be going sideways for a while, but long-term it is a great company.