Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG)

Alphabet's stock (GOOG) reached an all-time high of $205.89 on February 4, 2025, coinciding with Q4 2024 earnings that showed a revenue miss but high capital expenditure plans. First-quarter earnings in 2024 exceeded expectations, contributing to positive investor sentiment, and Alphabet surpassed a $2 trillion market valuation on April 26, 2024, following the announcement of its first dividend and a $70 billion stock buyback. In July 2025, analysts showed optimism for Alphabet's upcoming Q2 earnings, citing rising cloud momentum and positive outlooks for ad revenue and Gemini AI. Alphabet finalized a $2.4 billion licensing agreement for Windsurf's AI coding technology on July 18, 2025, reinforcing its Gemini project. As of July 21, 2025, the GOOG stock closed at $190.20, a 5.98% increase over the last year.

Demand for Alphabet's products and services exhibits seasonality, particularly in advertising, cloud, and hardware. Google Search and YouTube advertising revenues are impacted by holidays and events, with advertisers increasing spending during high-demand periods. Google Cloud experiences demand spikes during sales periods, while Android app downloads surge during summer holidays and shopping events. Pixel phone sales show upticks around new product launches and the holiday season.

Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, is a global technology conglomerate operating in the Information Technology sector. Its business is divided into Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. Google Services includes Google Search, Maps, Gmail, Play, Android, Chrome, YouTube, online advertising services, and hardware products, contributing 92% of Alphabet's 2022 revenue. Google Cloud provides infrastructure, platform services, collaboration tools, and AI infrastructure for enterprise customers. Other Bets comprises emerging businesses like Waymo, Calico Life Sciences, Verily, Wing, Fiber, CapitalG, GV, and X, with heavy investments in infrastructure, data, machine learning, and AI.

Alphabet Inc. has a significant global presence across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, divided into the United States and International regions. International revenue consistently contributes a larger absolute amount, indicating a broad global footprint. Alphabet International is located in 14 countries and serves 38 markets through its Alphabet OneNet members.

Google maintained a strong brand presence and was ranked as the world's most valuable media brand in 2023, with an estimated brand value of $281.4 billion. However, Alphabet's brand reputation faced challenges, including controversy over Gemini's image generation capabilities in February 2024, leading to a stock fall and calls for CEO Sundar Pichai's resignation. The company has also faced regulatory scrutiny and antitrust actions, as well as criticism for mass layoffs in 2023.

Alphabet Inc. is primarily owned by institutional investors, who hold over 60% of the shares. Major institutional shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock, Inc., and State Street Corp. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each control around 3% of all shares but, along with other insiders, control the majority of voting shares through Class B shares. Other top individual insider shareholders include Sundar Pichai and L. John Doerr.