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How to buy Alphabet (GOOGL) shares
Learn how to easily invest in Alphabet shares.
Alphabet Inc is an internet content & information business based in the US. Alphabet shares (GOOGL) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Alphabet employs 144,056 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$220.3 billion.
How to buy shares in Alphabet
- Compare share trading platforms. Use our comparison table to help you find a platform that fits you.
- Open your brokerage account. Complete an application with your details.
- Confirm your payment details. Fund your account.
- Research the stock. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol – GOOGL – and research it before deciding if it's a good investment for you.
- Purchase now or later. Buy your desired number of shares with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until the stock reaches a desired price.
- Check in on your investment. Optimize your portfolio by tracking your stock.
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What's in this guide?
- Alphabet shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is Alphabet stock a buy or sell?
- Alphabet performance over time
- Can I short Alphabet shares?
- Is Alphabet suitable for ethical investing?
- Are Alphabet shares over-valued?
- Alphabet's financials
- How volatile are Alphabet shares?
- Does Alphabet pay a dividend?
- Have Alphabet shares ever split?
- Other common questions
How has Coronavirus impacted Alphabet's stock price?
Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Alphabet's stock price has had significant positive movement.
Its last market close was $2816, which is 47.32% up on its pre-crash value of $1483.46 and 179.12% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the stocks fell as low as $1008.87.
If you had bought $1,000 worth of Alphabet stocks at the start of February 2020, those stocks would have been worth $706.27 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth $1,886.72.
Is it a good time to buy Alphabet stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Alphabet shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-09-17.
| Latest market close | $2,816.00 |
|---|---|
| 52-week range | $1,402.15 - $2,925.08 |
| 50-day moving average | $2,795.55 |
| 200-day moving average | $2,433.50 |
| Wall St. target price | $3,146.45 |
| PE ratio | 30.6821 |
| Dividend yield | N/A (0%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | $92.19 |
Alphabet stock price (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
Use our graph to track the performance of GOOGL stocks over time.Alphabet price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the close of $2816 from 2021-09-17
| 1 week (2021-09-10) | -0.05% |
|---|---|
| 1 month (2021-08-18) | 3.95% |
| 3 months (2021-06-18) | 17.22% |
| 6 months (2021-03-18) | 39.31% |
| 1 year (2020-09-18) | 94.06% |
|---|---|
| 2 years (2019-09-18) | 128.45% |
| 3 years (2018-09-18) | 141.28% |
| 5 years (2016-09-16) | 252.90% |
Is Alphabet under- or over-valued?
Valuing Alphabet stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Alphabet's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Alphabet's P/E ratio
Alphabet's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 31x. In other words, Alphabet shares trade at around 31x recent earnings.
That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.
Alphabet's PEG ratio
Alphabet's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.8219. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Alphabet's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Alphabet's EBITDA
Alphabet's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $75.6 billion.
The EBITDA is a measure of a Alphabet's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
Alphabet financials
| Revenue TTM | $220.3 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 28.45% |
| Gross profit TTM | $97.8 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 12.76% |
| Return on equity TTM | 28.29% |
| Profit margin | 28.57% |
| Book value | $355.83 |
| Market capitalisation | $1.9 trillion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Alphabet shares
There are currently 3.0 million Alphabet shares held short by investors – that's known as Alphabet's "short interest". This figure is 1.7% down from 3.0 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Alphabet shares can be evaluated.
Alphabet's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
Alphabet's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Alphabet shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Alphabet shares traded daily (recently around 1.1 million). Alphabet's SIR currently stands at 2.85. In other words for every 100,000 Alphabet shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2850 shares are currently held short.
However Alphabet's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Alphabet shares, or, against the total number of tradable Alphabet shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Alphabet's short interest could be expressed as 0% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Alphabet shares in existence, roughly 0 shares are currently held short) or 0.0052% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Alphabet shares, roughly 5 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Alphabet.
Alphabet's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Alphabet.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
Alphabet's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 20.35
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Alphabet's overall score of 20.35 (as at 12/31/2018) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 29th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Alphabet is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
Alphabet's environmental score
Environmental score: 3.52/100
Alphabet's social score
Social score: 6.37/100
Alphabet's governance score
Governance score: 7.99/100
Alphabet's controversy score
Controversy score: 4/5
ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Alphabet scored a 4 out of 5 for controversy – the second-lowest score possible, reflecting that Alphabet has a damaged public profile.
Alphabet share dividends
We're not expecting Alphabet to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.
Have Alphabet's shares ever split?
Alphabet's shares were split on a 1998:1000 basis on 2 April 2014. So if you had owned 1000 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 1998 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Alphabet shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 49.9% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Alphabet shares which in turn could have impacted Alphabet's share price.
Alphabet share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Alphabet's shares have ranged in value from as little as $1402.15 up to $2925.0801. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Alphabet's is 1.0044. This would suggest that Alphabet's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
Alphabet overview
Alphabet Inc. provides online advertising services in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. The company offers performance and brand advertising services. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, such as ads, Android, Chrome, hardware, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube, as well as technical infrastructure; and digital content. The Google Cloud segment offers infrastructure and data analytics platforms, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers. The Other Bets segment sells internet and TV services, as well as licensing and research and development services.
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Frequently asked questions
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Disclaimer: This information should not be interpreted as an endorsement of futures, stocks, ETFs, CFDs, options or any specific provider, service or offering. It should not be relied upon as investment advice or construed as providing recommendations of any kind. Futures, stocks, ETFs and options trading involves substantial risk of loss and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Trading CFDs and forex on leverage comes with a higher risk of losing money rapidly. Past performance is not an indication of future results. Consider your own circumstances, and obtain your own advice, before making any trades.
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