Is Alphabet a Buy Amid Q2 Beat, AI Visibility and Attractive Valuation?

Core Insights - Alphabet Inc. reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.31 per share, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.15 per share, with revenues of $81.72 billion, surpassing estimates by 2.82% [1][6] Financial Performance - For 2025, the Zacks Consensus Estimate projects revenues of $333.75 billion, reflecting a 13.1% year-over-year increase, and earnings per share of $9.89, indicating a 23% increase year-over-year [4] - For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate anticipates revenues of $373.75 billion, suggesting a 12% year-over-year improvement, and earnings per share of $10.56, indicating a 6.7% increase year-over-year [5] - Alphabet's long-term EPS growth rate is 14.9%, surpassing the S&P 500's rate of 12.6% [5] AI and Cloud Strategy - Alphabet is significantly enhancing its AI capabilities to strengthen its search engine advertising and cloud computing businesses, raising its 2025 capital expenditure target to $85 billion from $75 billion [2][3] - The company is experiencing substantial demand for its AI product portfolio, with AI-driven search tools serving over 2 billion users monthly [6][9] - Google Cloud is positioned as the third-largest provider in the cloud infrastructure market, competing with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure [11] Search Engine Dominance - Alphabet maintains nearly 90% of the global search engine market share, with Google Search revenues increasing 11.7% year-over-year to $54.19 billion [7] - The introduction of advanced AI features is driving deeper user engagement, with users generating queries twice as long as traditional searches [10] Product Diversification - Alphabet's self-driving business, Waymo, is expanding rapidly, currently providing around 250,000 rides per week and testing in over 10 cities [15][16] Valuation Metrics - Alphabet has a forward P/E ratio of 19.52X for the current financial year, compared to 20.42X for the industry and 19.96X for the S&P 500 [17] - The company boasts a return on equity of 34.31%, significantly higher than the industry average of 4.01% and the S&P 500's 16.88% [17] Stock Performance - Year-to-date, Alphabet's shares have lagged behind the S&P 500, but have gained over 20% in the past three months, outperforming the index [19]