Inside the Upgrade
According to analyst Brian Wieser: “We have been generally negative on Google since early 2013, given our ongoing concerns about margin erosion, intensive capital investment plans and diversification (also capital intensive often) away from the company’s core advertising business. The business has generally expanded better than we thought it would and margin erosion – while evidently worse than most investors expected – has not been quite as bad as we feared. An additional negative has taken root in terms of Google’s relationship with the governments of many countries in which it operates, which may add further costs in the long run (for example, through higher taxes, additional support for governmental pet projects and fines), although nothing resembling a meaningful threat.”
A Stock for Traders
Mutual Funds to Watch
Symbol | Mutual Fund | Stake |
---|---|---|
FCNTX | Fidelity® Contrafund® | 0.97% |
VTSMX | Vanguard Total Stock Market Index | 0.69% |
VFINX | Vanguard 500 Index | 0.44% |
The Bottom Line
Shares of GOOGL are down 10% YTD.