Google Stock Forecast: It’s Time To Buy More GOOGL Shares

motek 1The Google Stock Forecast article was written by Motek Moyen Research Seeking Alpha’s #1 Writer on Long Ideas and #2 in Technology – Senior Analyst at I Know First.

Summary:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic sell-off made GOOGL cheaper to own. This stock down -20.93% from its 52-week high price of $1,530.74.
  • As the no. 1 digital advertising company and overlord of the Android OS ecosystem, pandemic quarantines are actually beneficial to Google.
  • Billions of people are now stuck at home. Some of them are working but many are just entertaining themselves on their phones or computers.
  • Going forward, the first two quarters of 2020 will show a boost in Google’s advertising business and app store revenue.
  • The work-from-home initiatives of many companies can also boost Google Cloud and G Suite sales.

Get rid of the pandemic-induced negativity. Now is the time to add more shares of Alphabet/Google (GOOGL) (GOOG). No thanks to the COVID-19 sell-off, GOOGL is now more than 20% cheaper than its 52-week high of $1,530.74. The big drop in GOOGL’s price from its February price levels is a great buy-the-dip opportunity.

google stock forecast
(Source: Yahoo Finance)

Advertising is a high-margin business and Google remains the king of advertising. GOOGL is a bargain whenever it trades at lower than 28x Forward P/E. Based on the chart below, GOOGL also has a notably lower Enterprise Value/Sales valuation than Alibaba (BABA). Google’s TTM EV/Sales valuation is less than 5x, while Alibaba touts higher than 7x EV/Sales valuation. This undervaluation will not persist for long. Advertising will always be a higher-margin endeavor than e-commerce.

google stock forecast
(Source: Seeking Alpha)

Buying Low While Others Are Fence-Sitting

The ongoing pandemic is no excuse for investors to sit on the fence. Traditional and digital advertising will still see robust growth for many years to come. Products and services will remain dependent on advertising to attract customers and increase their market share. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, I still expect the online advertising to deliver 18% – 20% CAGR until 2025. 

Online advertising (web and mobile) was worth more than $300 billion last year. Business Intelligence firm eMarketer believes this amount will grow to over $980 billion by 2025. You should buy more GOOGL because eMarketer is convinced Google will continue to remain no. 1 in advertising.

Mobile is the biggest growth driver of online or digital advertising. We all know that Google owns the Android ecosystem. Those sub-$200 Android phones that are popular among citizens of the Asia Pacific region will help protect Google’s leadership in digital advertising. As per the chart from eMarketer, the Asia Pacific region will see the fastest growth in online advertising until 2025.

google stock forecast
(Source: eMarketer)

I am therefore highly confident that GOOGL will again rise to $1,500 and beyond. It is inevitable. Most investors will eventually realize that pandemic quarantines are actually beneficial to Google’s advertising and Android Play App Store business segments.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global catastrophe. However, we cannot ignore/deny that COVID-19 is a medium-term tailwind for Google’s advertising services. Billions of people forced to stay home by COVID-19 quarantines/lockdowns increased the total addressable market for Google’s web and mobile advertising platforms. Advertising accounts for almost 84% of Google’s $45.8 billion quarterly revenue.

google stock forecast
 (Source: Statista)

Google’s massive social networking site, YouTube.com, is also greatly benefiting from month-long quarantines. People who are bored watching Netflix (NFLX) shows, ultimately end up bingeing on YouTube. The big surge (40% to 75%) in YouTube traffic forced Google to reduce the default steaming resolution to SD or 480p. This surge is good for YouTube’s fast-growing advertising platform.

google stock forecast

My fearless forecast is that YouTube will likely wrap up 2020 with more than $20 billion in advertising revenue. YouTube’s 2019 ad revenue was only $15.15 billion.

Google is also adjusting to the quarantine boost in TikTok usage. YouTube is planning to release a new integrated TikTok-life app called “Shorts.” Shorts will work inside YouTube’s app and it will let users create short 10 to 15-second video. Shorts users will have access to millions of YouTube-licensed music.

Alphabet’s ambitious mission to disrupt TikTok’s popularity is compelling reason to buy more GOOGL shares.

Work From Home Is Also Great For Google Cloud And G Suite

Quarantines forced many companies and government agencies to adopt a work-from-home for billions of employees around the world. While not as big as Amazon’s (AMZN) AWS, Google Cloud will still reap benefits as more companies increase their adoption of cloud computing services. Big or small companies need to rent more cloud computing instances to support and secure the productivity of their employees now working from home.

Google’s cloud productivity product, G Suite will also benefit from work-from-home. COVID-19 quarantines will help G Suite increase its current 6 million paid business users to more than 7 million by end of 2020. Pandemic lockdowns obviously hurt the sales of many companies. Due to budget limitations, many pandemic-affected companies will go for the most affordable alternative to Microsoft’s (MSFT) Office 365. G Suite is still more budget-friendly than Office 365.

Going forward, after this pandemic is over, many companies will likely appreciate the cost-savings of work-from-home.  I won’t be surprised if companies will still let a large part of its workforce work from home after his pandemic. If proven true, Google Cloud and G Suite will have a long-term tailwind from work-from-home adoption.

Final Thoughts

The other big winner from pandemic quarantines is Google’s Play App Store. The big surge in gaming from quarantines will deliver a boost to Android in-app purchases. No thanks to COVID-19, the Google Play App store will likely gross more than $35 billion in 2020. The mandatory stay-at-home edicts of many governments will likely turn tens of millions in to lifelong gamers.

The more people that are enticed to become gamers, the better it will be for Google’s fast-growing app store business. GOOGL is a buy when you take into account that it gets 30% cut from app store purchases.

(Source: Statista)

The stock-picking AI of I Know First also has a very bullish one-year stock market forecast score for Alphabet/Google. It’s long-term view shares my optimism over GOOGL.

google stock forecast

Past I Know First Success with Google Stock Forecast

On October 30th, the algorithm of I Know First provided bullish Google stock market predictions. The algorithm successfully predicted Google stock forecast on the 30 days time horizon and is on the verge to predict the 3 months time horizon. Google’s shares rose by some 20.47% in line with the prediction:

disney stock forecast
disney stock forecast

Here at I Know First, one of the top fintech companies in the industry, our algorithm has modeled and predicted assets price movement worldwide for short-term and long-term time horizons, ranging from 3 days to a year. Since 2011, we have been providing not only Google stock forecast, but also daily predictions for 10,500 assets, including forex forecastgold price forecast, world indices and for individual stocks. Additionally, we provide special coverage for the latest Apple stock news. Our forecasts generated by our algorithmic trading tool is used by institutional clients, as well as private investors and traders to identify the top stocks to buy in the market and exercise the traded faster than the other market players.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is google101.png

To subscribe today click here.

Please note-for trading decisions use the most recent forecast.