We recently compiled a list of the 10 Unrivaled Stocks of the Next 10 Years. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stands against the other unrivaled stocks of the next 10 years.

Growing a business is not an easy task. Several factors come into the picture when you talk about growth. In 2019, McKinsey reported that ~50% of the companies that enjoyed healthy and stable shareholder returns but didn’t see top-line growth were either acquired or delisted. Growth is getting tougher amidst new market dynamics such as higher consumer expectations, competitive intensity, and digital disruption. Growth can only be rewarded to businesses that spot opportunities at hyper-granular levels and then seize them quickly.

Pricing Power Remains Critical, Says Legendary Investor

Warren Buffett, the billionaire CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., mentioned that he tends to rate businesses based on their ability to increase prices. He pays so much attention to the pricing power that he sometimes doesn’t even consider the people who are managing the business. Buffett has had a successful career of stock picking and takeovers.

The veteran investor has bought companies in the business of railroads and electricity producers, whose pricing power comes from a dearth of competitive options available to their clients. Buffett has also built stakes in several consumer discretionary companies relying on the appeal of their brands to bring in customers.

Forecasts for 2024

Wall Street analysts expect that S&P 500 companies are expected to report steady earnings growth in 2024. They anticipate a ~5.4% earnings growth in 3Q 2024 and over ~15% earnings growth in 4Q 2024. The S&P 500’s forward price-to-earnings ratio sits at ~22.40x as of August 30. The 10-year average forward price-to-earnings ratio came at ~17.9x, suggesting that the stock valuations might be slightly stretched.

Moving forward, the US presidential election remains the most significant potential market catalyst for 2H 2024. Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management believes that inflation numbers might surprise to the upside towards the end of 2024 and into 2025. This is because year over year comparables might become more difficult and the effects of increased Chinese shipping rates start reflecting in the inflation data points.

Equity Market Outlook Amidst Uncertain Macro-Economic Environment

A “higher-for-longer” backdrop favoured larger and higher-quality companies that are less cyclical and rate-sensitive. Such companies were supported by mania in Artificial Intelligence/Large Language Models (AI/LLM) stocks. JPMorgan believes that, in the US equities, momentum crowding and stock market concentration reached multi-decade extremes.

Market volatility in the US remains low, with VIX averaging only ~14 for the year to July 2024. This was mainly because of fundamental and technical factors, such as rising markets, risk complacency, and lower realized correlation, among others.

In Europe and other areas, the broader equities were supported by improved economic activity and the expectation of multiple Fed cuts at the start of 2024. However, the growth-policy trade-off might worsen in 2H 2024. JPMorgan believes that “there is a risk of disappointment.” The large bank expects that the Fed might stay ‘higher-for-longer,’ US activity momentum might decelerate and there can be a softening of pricing and top-line growth. Collectively, this might hurt earnings delivery in 2H 2024. Therefore, investing in stocks with wide economic moats and companies having significant market share should help offset the losses in the remainder of 2024.

Our methodology

To list 10 unrivaled stocks of the next 10 years, we sifted through wide moat ETFs and checked online rankings. Next, we narrowed our list by filtering out the companies that have held a near-monopoly status for years or decades. Finally, we ranked the stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that hold them, as of 2Q 2024

At Insider Monkey, we are obsessed with 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).

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of hedge fund holders: 216

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a holding company and the internet media giant, Google, is its wholly-owned subsidiary.

The internet giant enjoys a wide economic moat given its durable competitive advantages, which are derived from its intangible assets, and its network effect. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) possesses significant intangible assets with its overall technological expertise concerning algorithms and AI (machine learning and deep learning), and access to and accumulation of valuable data for advertisers. Regardless of its actual technological competency, the company’s search engine is regarded as being the most advanced in the industry. As a result of these factors, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) retains an impressive share of just over ~80.0% of the global desktop search market.

Moving forward, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s revenues are expected to be primarily supported by continued growth in digital ad spending from Asia-based retailers. Also, YouTube should benefit from strong reach and usage frequency. Its video-only content format is attractive to the brand advertisers.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) should be able to defend its search dominance over the next decade with its own AI technology. The company is focused on investing in AI to drive growth throughout its offerings, such as advertising and Cloud.

Analysts at Wolfe Research initiated coverage on the shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) on 16^th July. They gave an “Outperform” rating, with a price target of $240.00 per share.

Patient Capital Management, a value investing firm, released its 2Q 2024 investor letter and mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Here is what the fund said:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was a top contributor in the second quarter, finally catching up to its peers in the Magnificent 7. The company gained 20.8% in the period following strong first-quarter earnings, a new $70B repurchase program (3% of shares outstanding), and the initiation of a cash dividend ($0.20 per share; 0.42% yield). We continue to believe the market underappreciates Google’s exposure to AI with its Gemini model being integrated into search results, YouTube advertising, and its cloud offering. We continue to think that the cloud players will be the AI winners in the long-term, with Google being well-positioned to take advantage. While the company trades at 24x 2024 earnings, if you remove the money-losing and under-earning businesses, you realize that you are paying below a market multiple for the core Google business. We do not believe there are many other AI winners trading at such an attractive multiple.”

Overall GOOGL ranks 1st on our list of the unrivaled stocks of the next 10 years. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued 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.