
NASDAQ:GOOG
GOOG-Q or GOOGL-Q? Which stock would you hold, voting or nonvoting? You always want to have a vote, because nonvoting shareholders tend to get brushed aside. In non-voting situations, individuals tend to want to get their hands on the shareholders’ cash and do unreasonable things. Of the tech companies that do not pay a dividend, this is the crème de la crème because the growth is still there. Even though the stock is trading in the $500 range, you are looking at 16X next years earnings so it is still relatively attractive.
Why do voting and non-voting shares trade for different amounts and which is better? Under the symbol GOOG, that is now a non-voting share (but owners have 10 votes per share.). An A share was developed under the symbol GOOGL which allows 1 vote per share. So on one you don’t have a vote and on the other you have 1 vote. Google has said that these 2 shares eventually will trade at the same price. If you are going to buy shares, buy the cheaper one.
Yahoo (YHOO-Q) versus Google (GOOG-Q)? Google has 60%-70% plus of market share in terms of Search and is clearly the dominant player in the space. On ad based revenue growth, they been able to grow and currently have a new “enhanced campaign” for targeted marketing. If you want to play search, growth in mobile and ad revenues, this is the one to play.