Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is the parent company of Google and one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. GOOGL has more than 150,000 employees worldwide and offers a wide range of products and platforms like Google, Search, Maps, Ads, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Google Cloud, and YouTube. At last check, GOOGL is trading up 2.5% at $2,452.37.
Alphabet announced plans to hold their quarterly conference call to discuss first quarter of 2022 financial results on Tuesday, April 26, earlier this month. Most recently, Alphabet reported an EPS (earnings per share) of $30.69 for the fourth quarter of 2021. Wall Street analysts anticipate that the tech behemoth will report decreased earnings of $26.11 for Q1.
Alphabet stock has struggled to maintain any prominent gains this year, still sporting a lackluster 15% year-to-date deficit. In fact, despite starting the year by soaring to a record high of $3,030.93, the shares have since been stuck in a cycle of higher lows.
Moreover, Alphabet stock provides an intriguing valuation at a forward price-earnings ratio of 20.88 and a price-sales ratio of 6.29. These metrics are relatively low given GOOGL’s growth rate and resources to continue expanding. Alphabet currently holds an incredible balance sheet with $139.65 billion in cash and $28.51 billion in total debt, making an investment in GOOGL one of the safest available on the market.
However, this bet would come at a premium, with the equity's shares looking very pricey at the moment. This is per the Google parent's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 48%, which ranks in the 100th annul percentile, indicating options traders are expecting high volatility expectations right now.