Here's Why Alphabet's $845 Stock Is Still Undervalued

Alphabet Inc GOOGL is among the tech industry’s leaders, but shares appear “attractively valued,” in view of the company’s “rapidly expanding businesses,” Argus’s Joseph Bonner said in a report. He maintained a Buy rating on the company, with a price target of $950.

Last week, Alphabet reported its quarterly top line 3 percent ahead of the consensus estimate, albeit missing EPS expectations. The company recorded 22 percent year-over-year growth in gross revenue to $26.1 billion. Bonner raised the EPS estimate for 2017 from $39.98 to $41.17.

Stock Seems Undervalued

Alphabet is among the leaders in the tech industry, along with Facebook Inc FB, Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

“These companies have come to dominate new developments in mobile, public cloud, and big data analytics, as well as emerging areas such as artificial intelligence and virtual/augmented reality,” Bonner commented.

While bears believe Alphabet would be less successful in monetizing mobile search advertising than it has been with desktop search, so far mobile search advertising seems to be growing strongly, the analyst noted. He added that even Alphabet’s next-generation businesses, such as YouTube, Google Cloud and Google Play, “have all begun to generate significant revenue growth.”

Alphabet’s shares have appreciated about 18 percent over the past year, versus a 22 percent gain in the S&P 500.

“We believe that the shares remain attractively valued given the company’s rapidly expanding businesses,” Bonner wrote.