Alphabet is a holding company. Co. has two segments: Google and Other Bets. Google includes Co.'s main internet products such as Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. Co. is a provider of advertising solutions and provides a range of products across screens and devices. Co. delivers both performance advertising and brand advertising. Co. also provides digital content, enterprise cloud services, and hardware. Other Bets is engaged in sales of internet and TV services through Fiber, sales of Nest products and services, and licensing and research and development services through Verily. We show 20 historical shares outstanding datapoints in our GOOG shares outstanding history coverage, used to compute GOOG market cap on those dates.
Understanding the changing numbers of shares outstanding, the changing
share price, and the resulting changing Alphabet market cap history over the course of time is important for investors
interested in comparing Alphabet's market cap history versus its peers.
Many "beginner" or "novice" investors will look at one stock trading at a price of $10 per share and another trading at
a price of $20 per share and think the latter company is worth twice as much. Of course, that is a completely meaningless comparison without also knowing how many shares outstanding there are for each of the two companies,
and then calculating their respective market caps. Comparing the share price of Alphabet versus a peer is one thing; comparing
Alphabet market cap versus a peer is a completely different story.
Furthermore, via fluctuation both in per-share price and in the number of shares outstanding (via issuance of new shares over time, the repurchase of existing shares),
the market cap for a company like Alphabet can fluctuate over the course of history.
With this page we aim to empower investors researching Alphabet by allowing them to research the Alphabet market cap history. |
Video: The Importance of Market Cap
