We recently published a list of Top 10 AI Stocks to Watch Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stands against other top AI stocks to watch right now.
Tom Hancock, GMO U.S. quality ETF portfolio manager, said in a latest program on CNBC that the NASDAQ has become “risky” bet amid a lot of volatility.
“It’s become not really an index; it’s become a single bet. So it it’s a very risky thing to invest in. It’s not what I think you would want from a sort of diversified investor. It’s probably going to give you more volatile returns next year, and I’d a little bit worry that the AI rally has extended itself. So uh those may be uncomfortably volatile returns.”
Hancock said investors should also pay attention to some of the “old economy” stocks. He thinks AI stocks have become a “hype trade” and any “hiccup” in the economy could result in these stocks crashing. He also urged investors to look for stocks outside the US.
Hancock believes AI gains are now set to broaden out to smaller companies that have not received a lot of attention so far.
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For this article we picked 10 AI stocks currently trending based on latest news. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A laptop and phone open to Google’s services in an everyday setting.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 160
Jessica Inskip, Stockbrokers.com director of investor research, explained in a latest program on CNBC why she believes Alphabet is on a bullish trajectory based on technical and fundamental analyses:
“First and foremost, Alphabet showed up on every single one of my technical scans that I ran on a weekly basis, but it’s all about AI agents. We’ve had a lot of excitement about this hyper computer and Gemini 2.0 that came out last week, but TPUs, those tensor processing units, are what actually fuel and train large language models. It accelerates those large language models, so if we have an acceleration that has better performance—four times more performance, 62% more energy efficient—that actually plays into those AI agents and enterprise solutions and positions Gole or Alphabet to actually compete with Azure and AWS. As we have AI agents like Salesforce starting to come to life, I think it’s a key theme we’re seeing in 2025.”
Based on technical analysis, Inskip said Alphabet is “primed for a breakout” at the current level of $191.
The market has been ignoring Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s key secondary businesses and the stock remains undervalued despite concerns around AI search and regulatory onslaught.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s secondary ventures in AI, autonomous driving, and other areas are making solid progress, especially in the Waymo robotaxi segment. Currently, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock trades below 20 times forward earnings, offering potential upside as EPS and other financial metrics strengthen in coming years. For next year, the consensus EPS estimate sits around $9. However, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has consistently beaten projections, delivering $7.54 in trailing twelve-month EPS compared to the expected $6.79—a roughly 11% outperformance.
With the 2025 EPS forecast at around $9, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) could realistically achieve earnings closer to $10 if it maintains its historical outperformance rate. At a projected $10 EPS, Google’s forward P/E multiple would be approximately 17, a relatively low valuation for a diversified market leader.
What are the key drivers for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)?
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) remains on track to reach a $100 billion revenue run rate from YouTube Ads and Google Cloud by the end of 2024. In its autonomous driving division, Waymo has shown notable progress, with paid autonomous rides growing 200% quarter-over-quarter to 150,000 weekly rides as of late October, thanks to a fleet of 700 vehicles in service since August.
This growth is significant: Waymo vehicles now average about 30.6 autonomous rides per day—substantially higher than Uber’s average of 4.18 rides per driver daily, based on Uber’s 31 million daily trips and 7.4 million drivers last quarter. This performance underscores Waymo’s competitive edge in autonomous ride volume compared to traditional ride-hailing.
In the third quarter, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Search & Other segment saw a 12.2% year-over-year revenue increase, rising from $44.03 billion to $49.39 billion. YouTube advertising also performed well, with revenue up 12.2% to $8.92 billion from $7.95 billion. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s subscriptions, platforms, and devices revenue grew even more sharply, surging 27.8% from $8.34 billion to $10.66 billion.
Google Cloud has been expanding steadily, with revenue climbing from $13.06 billion in 2020 to $33.09 billion in 2023. Notably, Google Cloud turned profitable for the first time in 2023, posting $1.72 billion in operating profit—a significant improvement from a $5.61 billion loss in 2020. This segment’s performance continues to strengthen, with the latest quarterly revenue reaching $11.35 billion, up 35% from $8.41 billion in the same period last year.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG): Google was our top detractor in the third quarter despite reporting second quarter results that were generally in line with expectations. The company reported slightly better revenue growth in Search, which grew 14% and continues to be resilient in the face of AI challengers, and Google Cloud, which grew 29% in the quarter. Service operating income margins of 40% and Cloud operating income margins of 11% were also both ahead of investors’ expectations as management’s cost-efficiency efforts drove operating leverage. YouTube revenue growth was slightly below expectations (+13% v. +16%) driven by tougher year-over-year comparisons and some general weakness in the Brand Advertising vertical. Finally, Cap Ex in the quarter of $13.2 billion was more than expected and likely the driver of the weakness in the stock as investors grapple with how much infrastructure investment will be required to achieve Google’s AI goals.
With its high margin business model (44% EBITDA margins last quarter), continued strength across its core Search and YouTube franchises, and continued growth and expanding profitability in its still relatively small Cloud business, we continue to view Alphabet as among the best-positioned secular growth franchises in the market. Additionally, GOOG shares trade at a compelling 19.5x the Street’s 2025 EPS estimate, a discount to the Russell 1000 Growth Index.”
Overall, GOOG ranks 4th on our list of top AI stocks to watch right now. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOG, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.