We recently published a list of Jim Cramer November Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stands against the other stocks in Jim Cramer’s November Portfolio.
Stock markets are roaring amid Donald Trump’s victory. Jim Cramer, who has long believed that Trump’s presidency would bode well for the stock market, earlier this week discussed the market’s reaction when chances of a Kamala Harris win were apparently rising. Looking back at Cramer’s analysis in hindsight gives us a nice overview of what groups of stocks could rise in the coming weeks and months.
Jim Cramer on Monday evening analyzed what caused the market to dip as of the closing session. Cramer believed the chances of Iowa turning blue spooked some market circles on various assumptions:
“Let’s start with the most incredible reactions, the bond market. Interest rates went sharply lower today. Now, see, I’m so used to higher, to interest rates going higher in a Democratic win, that this took me by surprise. It’s completely out of character. But the bond market is steep, and its judgment is not made on a whim. There had to be billions of dollars invested today on rates going lower if Harris wins the election. I find that astonishing.”
Cramer then talked about different groups of stocks that moved based on the sentiment that Harris could win this election. Housing stocks rose because the market is bullish based on potential subsidies if Harris wins. Tech stocks, however, fell, and Cramer explained the reason behind that:
“(hyper scalers and tech stocks) traded horribly today. What does it say? It says the traders are betting that Harris will stand by Biden’s FTC and antitrust appointments who are known to be anti-the hyper scalers,” Cramer added.
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Our Methodology
For this article we watched some latest programs of Jim Cramer and picked 10 stocks he’s talking about. With each company we have mentioned its hedge fund sentiment.
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 user’s hands typing a search query into a Google Search box, emphasizing the company’s search capabilities.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 216
Talking about Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s latest quarterly results, Jim Cramer said on CNBC that no one was expecting strong results from the company, even him despite owning the stock for his charitable trust.
“We had a quarter that was like the old Google when it was still called Google. Search was fabulous. YouTube was great. Google Cloud is on fire. It shot up almost 3% in response, and I bet it can keep running for days and days. It was that much better than expected.”
Cramer said Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares are inexpensive.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reported strong quarterly results recently. The results show that the market has been ignoring the company’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, Google’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.
What are the key drivers for Alphabet Inc (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.
Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund (Hedged) stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) operating performance remains strong with sales growing 14% in the most recent quarter. Highlights included the ongoing secular growth of digital advertising driving Google search (+14%), YouTube’s continued success as a leading content platform (+13%) and the performance of the Cloud business (+29%). In conjunction with this strong sales momentum, Alphabet’s increased focus on expenses is delivering margin expansion such that Operating Income grew 26%.
Despite this operational momentum, Alphabet’s share price declined 11% in the quarter as a federal judge ruled against the company in its case with the US Department of Justice. The case pertains to Google’s monopolisation of both the search and digital advertising markets which is claimed to limit competition and innovation and/or in
Potential remedies include prohibiting exclusive agreements which make Google the default search engine on Apple or Samsung devices, forcing Alphabet to share its advertising technology with rivals, or in the extreme breaking the company apart. The timing and outcomes remain somewhat uncertain however we remain of the belief that at the fundamental level Alphabet’s products are best of breed across several verticals and are benefitting from secular industry trends and that these factors will be the ultimate determinant of long-term shareholder returns.”
Overall, GOOGL ranks 4th on our list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s November Portfolio. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL, 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 timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL 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.