It was a rocky start to the year …
But Google (now called Alphabet) managed to quiet its critics. After reporting blockbuster earnings results in July, the tech giant’s stock popped 45% to an all-time high this year.
Don’t be discouraged if you missed this move.Alphabet is likely to jump another 30% next year as the stock pushes through $1,000 a share.Let me explain …Alphabet has had its share of critics since 2014. That’s when the company started seeing slower growth in cost-per-click (CPC). This is a key measure of what advertisers are willing to pay for traffic.
Management tried to explain the reasons why CPCs were declining. Former CFO Patrick Pichette said the slowdown was mostly due to people skipping ads on YouTube, the largest Internet video site in the world which Alphabet owns.
Pichette also said this trend was temporary. However, Alphabet reported weaker-than-expected earnings results for six straight quarters. Analysts began to doubt the credibility of the company. This explains why shares significantly underperformed the market for 18 months.
In March, Alphabet hired Ruth Porat as its new CFO. She previously worked for investment banking giant Morgan Stanley.Ruth promised to be more transparent about Alphabet’s financials. In other words, Porat would provide more details about Alphabet’s segments outside of search and advertising. This would help analysts better understand the company and the growth potential for its many divisions.
In her first earnings call (July 2015), Porat kept her promise.Alphabet reported its best quarterly results in nearly two years. She broke down each segment for analysts and investors. The result was a 16% pop in the stock, a move that added $65 billion to the company’s market cap in one day.Today, Alphabet is trading at an all-time high. But despite the recent jump in the stock, Alphabet still has huge upside potential over the next 12 months.
For example, the company has six products that have more than 1 billion users annually. This includes the Android mobile operating system, Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Chrome.
Google already dominates the smartphone operating system industry. They have more than an 80% share of the market. Apple’s iOS operating system is second with only a 15% market share. This is a huge catalyst for Alphabet, considering the amount of people who now use their mobile phones to shop.
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