Alphabet (GOOGL) is a Top-Ranked Growth Stock: Should You Buy?

Core Viewpoint - Zacks Premium provides various tools and resources to help investors make informed decisions and enhance their investment strategies, including daily updates, research reports, and stock screening tools [1]. Zacks Style Scores - Zacks Style Scores are complementary indicators that rate stocks based on value, growth, and momentum methodologies, assisting investors in selecting stocks likely to outperform the market in the next 30 days [2]. - Each stock receives a rating from A to F based on its characteristics, with A indicating the highest potential for outperformance [3]. Value Score - The Value Style Score focuses on identifying undervalued stocks using financial ratios such as P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, and Price/Cash Flow to find attractive investment opportunities [4]. Growth Score - The Growth Style Score emphasizes a company's financial health and future growth potential, analyzing projected and historical earnings, sales, and cash flow to identify stocks with sustainable growth [5]. Momentum Score - The Momentum Style Score identifies optimal entry points for stocks based on price trends and earnings outlook changes, utilizing metrics like one-week price change and monthly earnings estimate changes [6]. VGM Score - The VGM Score combines the Value, Growth, and Momentum Scores to provide a comprehensive rating, helping investors find stocks with the best overall potential [7]. Zacks Rank - The Zacks Rank is a proprietary model that uses earnings estimate revisions to simplify portfolio building, with 1 (Strong Buy) stocks achieving an average annual return of +23.62% since 1988, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 [8]. - There are over 800 top-rated stocks available, making it essential for investors to utilize Style Scores to narrow down their choices [9]. Stock to Watch: Alphabet (GOOGL) - Alphabet has transformed from a search engine provider to a leader in cloud computing, ad-based streaming, and other innovative sectors, holding over 94% of the online search market [12]. - GOOGL is currently rated 3 (Hold) with a VGM Score of A, and it is particularly appealing for growth investors, forecasting an 18.8% year-over-year earnings growth for the current fiscal year [13]. - Recent upward revisions in earnings estimates and a strong average earnings surprise of +14.6% further enhance GOOGL's attractiveness as an investment option [13][14].