Google: Expensive, or Cheap?

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Market Movers

by Ryan Avent

Main

Blogonomics: Exit Through Acquisition Extra Credit, Thursday Edition

Mar 5 2008 6:23PM EST

Herb Greenberg poses the conundrum, which I've translated into table form.

Date	Price	p/e ratio
IPO: August 2004	$100	52.3
July 2006	$386	65.3
March 2008	$444	23.6

By historical standards, the Four Horsemen are trading on very, very low p/e ratios - but their earnings are so strong that their stock prices still look high by those same historical standards.

There is a case to be made that both Google and Apple are (for very different reasons) more media companies than tech stocks. That would fit with the higher earnings and lower multiples that we're seeing right now. But they're also both vastly more inventive and creative than any media company, which means they must have more upside.

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