We recently published a list of the 13 Most Undervalued Blue Chip Stocks To Buy According To Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stands against other most undervalued blue chip stocks to buy according to analysts.
“Now is the Time to Revisit Portfolios”
The Fed went through with a 50 basis point cut and as things have started to get clear, investors must give their portfolio another look. On September 20, Matt Stucky, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management’s chief equities portfolio manager, appeared in an interview on Yahoo Finance to discuss why and how investors must revisit their portfolios.
He suggested that now is the perfect time for investors to sit down and reassess their investments with the help of advisors. Stucky highlights that there is currently $6.3 trillion sitting in money market funds in the asset class, which may not be as attractive after the 50 basis point cut went through. He urged investors to consider a rather diversified portfolio and suggested that sitting on cash alone is risky.
He reiterated that while investors do not need to alter their long-term strategic goals, the ones with idle cash must try to allocate or deploy that money in other investment classes. According to Stucky, garnering a solid yield or return on investment does not come without risk and investors must understand that with the current Fed decision on board, it is impossible to get that kind of yield from cash alone.
What Does the Cut Signal?
On September 19, Dennis Lockhart, Former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, appeared in an interview on Yahoo Finance to discuss the aftermath of the rate cut. According to Lockhart, the rate cut was perfectly balanced and rather optimistic in nature.
He believes that the Fed’s decision was not reactionary to anything going on in the market or the economy. The Fed is particularly confident about the inflation rate, the labor market, and the soft landing of the economy.
Lockhart suggested that the Fed will reroute and remain flexible based on how the economy is performing from meeting to meeting. According to him, the Fed will aim to maintain flexibility and the 50 basis point cut was more like a compensation to what should have happened in July.
Our Methodology
To come up with the 13 most undervalued blue chip stocks to buy according to analysts we examined multiple similar rankings, our own rankings, and ETFs to come up with the best blue chip stocks. We then chose stocks with a forward P/E ratio that was less than the S&P 500’s (22.68, as of September 22). Finally, we ranked the shortlisted stocks in ascending order of the analyst upside potential, as of September 22, 2024.
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)
Forward P/E, as of September 22: 21.4
Analyst Upside Potential, as of September 22: 25%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 216
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the most undervalued blue chip stocks to buy according to analysts. The company owns a range of products, including Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Cloud, and Waymo.
The company is relentlessly working to improve the Gemini experience and is also actively involved in developing AI hardware, having launched its NVIDIA chip rival in May. Moreover, the latest version of Gemini has accelerated performance across text, audio, video, and code.
While Google’s tensor processing units (TPU) only account for almost 20% of the market, its advancements promise higher market shares. In addition to that, its six-generation chips are 67% more energy efficient compared to the previous generation of processors.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) logged revenue worth $85 billion in the fiscal second quarter of 2024, driven by the growing momentum in cloud and search. Additionally, over 60% of generative AI startups and 90% of generative AI unicorns are customers of the Google Cloud. One can infer that the technology giant is well-positioned to exploit the next wave of artificial intelligence and innovation, making it a solid investment.
Analysts are bullish on GOOGL and their 12-month median price target of $205 points to a 25% upside from current levels. Overall, 216 investors held stakes worth $35.31 billion in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Of those, Fisher Asset Management was the highest stakeholder with a position of $8.86 billion.
Patient Capital Management mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (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 most undervalued blue chip stocks to buy according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that 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 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.