How to buy Alphabet (GOOGL) shares in the UK

Learn how to easily invest in Alphabet shares.

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Alphabet Inc
NASDAQ: GOOGL - USD
INTERNET CONTENT & INFORMATION
$2,721.88
+$83.88 (+3.18%)
Fact checked

Alphabet Inc (GOOGL) is a leading internet content and information business based in the US. It opened the day at $2724.19 after a previous close of $2638. During the day the price has varied from a low of $2706.01 to a high of $2765.94. The latest price was $2721.88 (25 minute delay). Alphabet is listed on the NASDAQ and employs 139,995 staff. All prices are listed in US Dollars.

How to buy shares in Alphabet

  1. Choose a platform. If you're a beginner, our share-dealing table below can help you choose.
  2. Open your account. You'll need your ID, bank details and national insurance number.
  3. Confirm your payment details. You'll need to fund your account with a bank transfer, debit card or credit card.
  4. Search the platform for stock code: GOOGL in this case.
  5. Research Alphabet shares. The platform should provide the latest information available.
  6. Buy your Alphabet shares. It's that simple.
The whole process can take as little as 15 minutes.

What's in this guide?

  1. Can I buy shares in Alphabet?
  2. Has coronavirus impacted Alphabet shares?
  3. Alphabet shares summary
  4. Compare share dealing platforms
  5. Is Alphabet stock a buy or sell?
  6. Performance over time
  7. Can I short Alphabet shares?
  8. Is Alphabet suitable for ethical investing?
  9. Are Alphabet shares over-valued?
  10. Financials
  11. How volatile are Alphabet shares?
  12. Does Alphabet pay a dividend?
  13. Have Alphabet shares ever split?
  14. Other common questions

How has coronavirus impacted Alphabet's share price?

Since the stock market crash that started in February 2020, Alphabet's share price has had significant positive movement.

Its last market close was $2393.5701, which is 38.02% up on its pre-crash value of $1483.46 and 137.25% up on the lowest point reached during the March 2020 crash when the shares fell as low as $1008.87.

If you had bought $1,000 worth of Alphabet shares at the start of February 2020, those shares 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 $1,603.69.

Alphabet share price (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Use our graph to track the performance of GOOGL stocks over time.

Alphabet shares at a glance

Information last updated 2021-07-28.
Open$2724.19
High$2765.94
Low$2706.01
Close$2721.88
Previous close$2638
Change$83.88
Change %3.1797%
Volume4,496,313
Information last updated 2021-07-22.
52-week range$1402.15 - $2586.53
50-day moving average$2462.7144
200-day moving average$2194.8125
Wall St. target price$2764.46
PE ratio34.2275
Dividend yieldN/A (0%)
Earnings per share (TTM)$75.04
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Invest in Alphabet shares with 0% commission

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  • Pay no stamp duty on UK shares (saving 0.5%)
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Fees for buying 3x Alphabet shares with popular platforms

Both exchange rates and share prices fluctuate in real time, so the costs presented here should be considered as a guide only. They do not incorporate stamp duty. Always refer to the platform itself for availability and pricing – which may differ from our information.

Platform Platform fee Min. initial deposit Trading fee estimate
eToro Free Stocks logo £0 $200 £29.29
£5,887.32 total
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Freetrade logo £0 No minimum £26.36
£5,884.39 total
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Degiro Share Dealing logo £0 £0.01 £6.29
£5,864.32 total
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Stake logo £0 £50 £29.30
£5,887.33 total
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Hargreaves Lansdown Fund and Share Account logo £0 £1 £70.54
£5,928.57 total
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interactive investor Trading Account logo £9.99 per month No minimum £95.87
£5,953.90 total
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Fineco logo £0 No minimum £58.58
£5,916.61 total
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Halifax Share Dealing Account logo £36 per year £20 £82.73
£5,940.76 total
Read review
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Full comparison of share dealing platforms

All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you’re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.

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.

Alphabet price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the last close of $2721.88

1 month (2021-06-29) 11.30%
3 months (2021-04-29) 13.75%

Is Alphabet under- or over-valued?

Valuing a stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge value.

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 34x. In other words, Alphabet shares trade at around 34x 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.

However, Alphabet's P/E ratio is best considered in relation to those of others within the internet content & information industry or those of similar companies.

PEG ratio

Alphabet's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.4515. A PEG ratio over 1 can be interpreted as meaning shares are overvalued at the current rate of growth, or may anticipate an acceleration in growth.

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.

However, it's sensible to consider Alphabet's PEG ratio in relation to those of similar companies.

EBITDA

Alphabet's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is a whopping $63 billion (£45.2 billion).

The EBITDA is a measure of a Alphabet's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

To put that into context you can compare it against similar companies.

Financials

Revenue TTM $196.7 billion
Operating margin TTM 25.26%
Gross profit TTM $97.8 billion
Return on assets TTM 10.34%
Return on equity TTM 23.69%
Profit margin 26.12%
Book value $342.743
Market capitalisation $1.8 trillion

TTM: trailing 12 months

How to short and sell Alphabet shares

  1. Create a CFD or spread betting account.
  2. Search for the stock code. E.g. "GOOGL.US"
  3. Choose your position size.
  4. Select "sell" rather than "buy".
  5. Confirm your position and keep tabs on it. You may wish to set limits on your position.

There are currently 2.8 million Alphabet shares held short by investors – that's known as the "short interest". This figure is 2.1% up from 2.7 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Alphabet shares can be evaluated.

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 1.2 million). Alphabet's SIR currently stands at 2.23. In other words for every 100,000 Alphabet shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2230 shares are currently held short.

To gain some more context, you can compare Alphabet's short interest ratio against those of similar companies.

However Alphabet's short interest can also be evaluated 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 0.0047% 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.

Find out more about how you can short Alphabet stock.

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.

Total ESG risk score

Alphabet's 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.).

To gain some more context, you can compare Alphabet's total ESG risk score against those of similar companies.

Environmental score

Alphabet's environmental score: 3.52/100

Social score

Alphabet's social score: 6.37/100

Governance score

Alphabet's governance score: 7.99/100

Controversy score

Alphabet's controversy score: 4/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. A high-profile company, Alphabet scored a 4 out of 5 for controversy – the second-lowest score possible, reflecting that Alphabet has a damaged public profile.

Wondering how that compares? Below are the controversy scores of similar companies.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Alphabet Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score 20.35
Total ESG percentile 29.34
Environmental score 3.52
Social score 6.37
Governance score 7.99
Level of controversy 4

Alphabet share dividends

We're not expecting Alphabet to pay a dividend over the next 12 months. However, you can browse other dividend-paying shares in our guide.

You may also wish to consider:

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.

Share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Alphabet's shares have ranged in value from as little as $1402.15 up to $2586.53. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

GOOGL.US volatility(beta: 1.01)Avg. volatility(beta: 1.00)LowHigh

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 1.0109. 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).

To put Alphabet's beta into context you can compare it against those of similar companies.

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Alphabet in the news

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