GOOGL is a historical outperformer in July
With the first half of the year in the rearview, and another quarter come and gone, many on Wall street are wondering about the future of Big Tech. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq (IXIC) has been trading inches from an all-time peak, many large-cap sector stalwarts, including Apple (AAPL) and Amazon.com (AMZN), saw lackluster returns at best in H1, as a rotation out of "growth stocks" occurred.
One member of the FAANG space that bucked this big-cap mystery, however, is Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL). The shares have tacked on almost 40% in 2021, and just strung together its longest quarterly win streak on record, marking their fifth-straight win with an 18.4% return.
Seasonality suggests there could be even more upside for the FAANG stock, too, per data from Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White. The stock just landed on White's list of the best performing stocks on the S&P 500 in July, going back 10 years. In fact, the security has seen positive monthly returns during this time period nine out of ten times, boasting a 9% pop on average -- the best monthly return on the list by a long shot. Today, the equity is off 0.4% at $2,433.01, but a move of similar magnitude would put it at $2,651.98 by the end of the month -- a fresh record for the tech name.
Alphabet stock really isn't too far from exploring uncharted territory, though some consolidation has been happening near the $2,460 level since mid-June, which is just south of the equity's all-time high of $2,461.91. There's plenty of technical support in place, too, including the 20-day moving average, which looks to be containing most of today's pullback.
For those wanting to speculate on GOOGL's strong seasonality without the hefty price tag, options might be the way to go. The security's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 18% stands higher than only 4% of readings from the past 12 months, suggesting options traders have rarely priced in lower volatility expectations during the past 12 months. Plus, its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) ranks at 76 out of a possible 100. This means Alphabet stock tends to outperform these volatility expectations -- a boon for buyers.