Owning shares of Alphabet(NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG), the parent of Google, has been a smart decision over the years. In the past decade, investors have been rewarded with a tremendous 555% return -- well exceeding the Nasdaq Composite's 299% performance.
Even in more recent times, this "Magnificent Seven" stock continues crushing it for shareholders. But this raises the question of whether or not it's still a good idea to add Alphabet to your portfolio now, particularly with its market capitalization now sitting firmly above $2 trillion.
Continue reading to see why this dominant enterprise is indeed still worthy of your investment dollars.
Accelerating revenue growth
Alphabet pleased its shareholders when it announced revenue growth of 15% in the three-month period that ended March 31. This marked the fifth straight quarter that the year-over-year sales gain accelerated, demonstrating a global digital ad market that is returning to strong form.
Because more than 75% of Alphabet's revenue is derived from ad services, it makes sense that a favorable industry backdrop is beneficial to its success. Growth was broad-based, with its Search and YouTube segments both putting up solid results.
What's remarkable is that even with trailing-12-month sales of $318 billion, Alphabet is still staring at robust expansion opportunities that are forecast to total $1.2 trillion in 2030. With its focus on bolstering artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives in an effort to better serve users and ad customers, Alphabet is in a favorable position to capture this growth.
According to Wall Street consensus analyst estimates, the company's revenue is projected to rise at a yearly clip of 11.4% over the next three years. And with ongoing operational improvements, earnings per share are slated to increase at a compound annual rate of 19.2% during that time. This outlook is certainly enough to excite prospective investors.
Positioned for long-term success
Investors might view tech stocks as risky businesses. That could be the case for the vast majority of them, but I don't think this is true when we look at Alphabet. I have confidence that this company will still be thriving a decade from now.
One obvious reason to believe this is its pristine financial position. As of March 31, the tech giant had $108 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities on its balance sheet -- way higher than its debt burden of $13 billion. And the company continues to generate copious amounts of free cash flow each quarter, so much so that management finally instituted a quarterly dividend.
This means that not only can Alphabet easily cover its interest payments and pay back any principal, but it also has the financial resources to keep investing aggressively in growth initiatives, no matter how the broader economy is faring. There aren't many businesses that can always operate from a position of power, like this one can.
It's difficult to envision this dominant competitive standing coming under any serious threat anytime soon. Fears about OpenAI's ChatGPT (and its integration with Microsoft's Bing) completely disrupting Google Search appear to be overblown. Google still has roughly 90% market share even 18 months since ChatGPT first launched.
Alphabet has an unrivaled data trove that can be employed to constantly improve its products and services. And it benefits from powerful network effects. These attributes will protect the business for a very long time.
The market isn't asking investors to pay a steep premium for this stock -- it's actually the opposite. Alphabet shares are trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of just 22.6. That seems like an absolute no-brainer buying decision, especially when you consider the company's growth potential, outsize profitability, and economic moat.
Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?
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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Neil Patel and his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
