Reviewing Alphabet (GOOG) and Its Competitors

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) is one of 189 publicly-traded companies in the “Interactive Media & Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Alphabet to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

27.3% of Alphabet shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.2% of shares of all “Interactive Media & Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 13.0% of Alphabet shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 24.0% of shares of all “Interactive Media & Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Alphabet has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alphabet’s competitors have a beta of 1.89, suggesting that their average stock price is 89% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Alphabet pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet pays out 4.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Interactive Media & Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 17.6% and pay out 4.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Alphabet has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Alphabet and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alphabet	1	5	35	6	2.98
Alphabet Competitors	1412	6000	11516	443	2.57

Alphabet presently has a consensus price target of $413.38, suggesting a potential upside of 39.48%. As a group, “Interactive Media & Services” companies have a potential upside of 30.15%. Given Alphabet’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Alphabet is more favorable than its competitors.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Alphabet and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alphabet	$402.84 billion	$132.17 billion	15.47
Alphabet Competitors	$13.40 billion	$3.56 billion	8.50

Alphabet has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Alphabet is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Alphabet and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alphabet	50.03%	43.33%	29.24%
Alphabet Competitors	-159.28%	-15.73%	4.06%

Summary

Alphabet beats its competitors on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet is a technology holding company whose primary business is Google. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google became part of Alphabet when the company adopted a holding-company structure in 2015. Sundar Pichai leads Alphabet and Google as chief executive officer. Google offers internet search, online advertising, cloud computing, and software and hardware products. Its services and products include Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and Google Cloud.