Alphabet is a juggernaut with an incredible set of businesses, including search, YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Android, Waze, Maps, and Waymo.
But the price/earnings ratio is inflated, given that Alphabet is choosing to lose significant money on moonshots like Waymo and Verily, a health-care services company.
The fact that investors dont pay up for Alphabet speaks to unforced errors, a lack of visible leadership in recent years, and regulatory risk.
While the number of outstanding Alphabet shares is down less than 1% in the past year, to 692 million, Apples is down 6%, to 4.5 billion.
Alphabet could pledge to cap its cash holdings at the current level and return all of its free cash flow to shareholders.