从投资角度来看，Alphabet 即将迎来 2009 年以来最好的一年，并且已被证明是 2021 年表现最好的大型科技股。
截至周四收于 2938.33 美元，Alphabet 的股价今年上涨了 68%。 2021 年只剩下五个交易日了，其最大的同行几乎不可能赶上。
微软是最接近的，上涨了 51%。苹果上涨了 33%，其次是 Facebook（现在是 Meta），上涨了 23%，亚马逊上涨了 5%。你甚至可以加入特斯拉，它今年上涨了 51%。纳斯达克 100 指数是纳斯达克最大的一篮子非金融公司，位居中间，上涨 27%。
Alphabet 的绝大部分收入来自谷歌的广告业务，在 Covid 大流行期间已被证明具有弹性，并且能够抵御最新一轮的通胀担忧。越来越多的消费者涌向网络和移动搜索、地图和 YouTube 视频，谷歌不断增长的云基础设施部门从远程工作的爆炸式增长中接手了业务。
在 10 月份的第三季度收益报告中，Alphabet 报告广告收入增长了 43%，达到 531 亿美元，YouTube 广告销售额也同样跃升至 72 亿美元。收益超过分析师预期。
虽然 Facebook 和 Snap 等其他基于广告的互联网公司受到苹果 iOS 隐私变化的拖累，但谷歌表现更好，部分原因是它对 Android 操作系统的控制以及对苹果的不依赖。
根据 Refinitiv 调查中分析师的平均估计，全年收入预计将增长 39% 至 2540 亿美元。这将标志着自 2007 年以来的最快增长，此前一年仅增长 13%，因为谷歌母公司预计 2020 年第二季度收入首次出现短暂下降。
2021 年初，在广告反弹的推动下，谷歌的搜索业务开始以大流行前的水平增长。根据皮尤研究中心的数据，各国开始重新开放，消费者在 YouTube 上花更多时间搜索产品和旅行选择的同时，这是美国用户在大流行期间所有社交媒体应用程序中增长最显着的。
阿格斯分析师在 10 月底的一份报告中写道：“Alphabet 从 2020 年第二季度 COVID-19 引起的广告低迷中复苏是显着的。”该公司给予买入评级，并写道：“随着电子商务和数字广告随着经济复苏而蓬勃发展，我们认为未来几个季度将继续保持增长势头。”
谷歌上一次为华尔街带来更好的回报是在 12 年前，当时该股股价翻了一番多。谷歌当时是一家小得多的公司，其市值直到 2020 年 1 月才达到 1 万亿美元。
在达到这一里程碑不到两年后，Alphabet 又增加了近万亿美元，在 11 月中旬达到峰值，略低于 2 万亿美元。截至上周收盘，其市值为 1.95 万亿美元。
这不仅仅是关于广告。
谷歌云部门第三季度收入增长 45% 至 49.9 亿美元，而运营亏损从去年同期的 12.1 亿美元收窄至 6.44 亿美元。谷歌云平台在云基础设施市场上落后于亚马逊网络服务和微软 Azure，但它受益于新兴的多云趋势，因为大企业分散了他们的工作负载，而不是依赖单一供应商。
Alphabet 的投资部门 GV 和 CapitalG 也获得了丰厚回报。包括 UiPath、Duolingo、Freshworks 和 Toast 在内的投资组合公司今年都上市了。 Alphabet 第三季度的投资收益为 1.88 亿美元，高于去年同期的 2600 万美元。
展望 2022 年，分析师的预测更为温和，Alphabet 可能需要寻找新的增长动力来继续保持优异表现。预计收入增长将放缓至 17%，与大流行之前的 2019 年持平。
与此同时，投资者仍在等待 Alphabet 的“其他赌注”取得一些进展。其自动驾驶汽车公司 Waymo 继续亏损，尽管它在 2021 年在新城市取得了长足的进步。 Alphabet 继续整合其他未能突破的项目，最近宣布其折叠式人行道实验室，其智慧城市的努力，进入了谷歌。
Alphabet was the top Big Tech stock of the year — here's why
Alphabet is on the verge of wrapping up its best year from an investment perspective since 2009, and has proven to be by far the top-performing Big Tech stock of 2021.
As of Thursday's close at $2938.33, Alphabet's stock is up 68% this year. With just five trading days left in 2021, it's virtually impossible for any of its biggest peers to catch up.
Microsoft is the closest, up 51%. Apple has gained 33%, followed by Facebook (now Meta) at 23% and Amazon at 5%. You can even throw in Tesla, which has climbed 51% for the year. The Nasdaq 100, a basket of the largest nonfinancial companies in the Nasdaq, is right in the middle, up 27%.
Alphabet, which gets the vast majority of its revenue from Google's advertising business, has proven resilient during the Covid pandemic and resistant to the latest bout of inflationary concerns. Consumers have flocked in greater numbers to web and mobile search, maps and YouTube videos, and Google's growing cloud infrastructure unit picked up business from the explosion in remote work.
In its third-quarter earnings report in October, Alphabet reported a 43% increase in advertising revenue to $53.1 billion, and a similar jump in YouTube ad sales to $7.2 billion. Earnings topped analyst estimates.
While other ad-based internet companies like Facebook and Snap were dragged down by privacy changes to Apple's iOS, Google has held up better, thanks in part to its control over the Android operating system and lack of reliance on Apple.
For the full year, revenue is expected to climb 39% to $254 billion, according to the average analyst estimate in a Refinitiv survey. That would mark the fastest growth since 2007 and follows a year of just 13% expansion, as the Google parent reckoned with a brief drop in revenue, for the first time, in the second quarter of 2020.
In early 2021, Google's search business began growing at pre-pandemic levels, driven by a rebound in advertising. Countries began reopening and consumers searched more for products and travel options while spending additional time on YouTube, which saw the most significant growth of any social media app among American users during the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center.
“Alphabet's recovery from the 2Q20 COVID-19-induced advertising slump has been remarkable,” wrote analysts from Argus, in a late October report. The firm has a buy rating and wrote, “We see continued momentum in the coming quarters as e-commerce and digital advertising have burgeoned with economic recovery.”
The last time Google delivered better returns for Wall Street was 12 years ago, when the stock more than doubled for the year. Google was a much smaller company then, and its market cap didn't hit $1 trillion until January 2020.
Less than two years after reaching that milestone, Alphabet added nearly another trillion dollars, peaking just shy of $2 trillion in mid-November. Its market cap sits at $1.95 trillion, as of last week's close.
It's not just about advertising.
Revenue in Google's cloud division climbed 45% to $4.99 billion in the third quarter, while operating loss narrowed to $644 million from $1.21 billion a year earlier. Google Cloud Platform trails Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure in the cloud infrastructure market, but it's benefiting from an emerging multicloud trend, as big businesses spread their workloads rather than relying on a single vendor.
Alphabet also saw big returns from its investment arms GV and CapitalG. Portfolio companies including UiPath, Duolingo, Freshworks and Toast went public this year. Alphabet recorded investment gains of $188 million in the third quarter, up from $26 million a year earlier.
Looking to 2022, analysts' predictions are more muted, and Alphabet may need to find new growth drivers to continue its outperformance. Revenue growth is expected to slow to 17%, about where it was in 2019, before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, investors are still waiting for some progress out of Alphabet's “Other Bets.” Its self-driving car company Waymo continues to lose a ton of money, though it made strides in new cities during 2021. Alphabet continues to consolidate other projects that haven't been able to break out, announcing most recently that its folding Sidewalk Labs, its smart city efforts, into Google.
