Phase & Valuation
Three questions decide a company's life-cycle phase — growing? profitable? returning capital? — then the page picks the one valuation metric that fits that phase and shows where today's price sits against the company's own 5-year history. Free SEC filings + live prices, nothing paid.
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL)
$342.36 as of 2026-09-24 via yahoo
5-Phase ladder
Why Phase 4: growing, profitable, and returning capital via buybacks/dividends; revenue growing +20.1% YoY
Revenue?
Total sales the company booked — before any costs or expenses are subtracted.TTM?
Trailing Twelve Months — the most recent 4 quarters added together, so it updates every quarter instead of waiting a full year.YoY: +20.1%
TTM?
Trailing Twelve Months — the most recent 4 quarters added together, so it updates every quarter instead of waiting a full year.operating cash flow?
Operating Cash Flow — actual cash generated by the core business, before investing or financing activity. Cash is harder to fake than accounting profit.operating margin?
Operating margin — operating profit divided by revenue, as a percent. How much of every sales dollar turns into profit before interest and taxes.buybacks?
The company spending its own cash to repurchase its own shares, which shrinks the share count and (all else equal) lifts the stock price.dividends?
A cash payment a company sends directly to shareholders, usually every quarter.% of
free cash flow?
Free Cash Flow — operating cash flow minus the money spent on equipment/property (capex). What's left over for the company to do whatever it wants with.market cap?
Market Capitalization — share price times shares outstanding. What the stock market currently values all the equity at.P/E (P/E?
Price / Earnings — the stock price divided by profit per share. How many dollars you pay today for $1 of yearly profit.)
Phase 4 primary metricP/E?
Price / Earnings — the stock price divided by profit per share. How many dollars you pay today for $1 of yearly profit.percentile band?
Percentile band — where today's number sits versus its own history. p25 = cheaper than 75% of the last 5 years; p75 = more expensive than 75% of the last 5 years.
Cross-check metrics
P/FCF?
Price / Free Cash Flow — the stock price divided by free cash flow per share. A cross-check on P/E, since free cash flow is harder to dress up than GAAP earnings.Warnings
2 flaggedP/E looks cheap (17.2x, below its 5yr median 24.8x) but P/FCF is 79.1x — 1.8x its own 5yr median. Heavy capex is depressing free cash flow relative to reported earnings.
TTM net income ($244,205M) is 1.7x TTM operating income ($147,628M) — likely a large one-time gain (tax, disposal, investment mark) inflating the bottom line.
Phase and valuation labels are descriptive, not a tested buy signal. They summarize public filings and price history — not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold.
Data sources
SEC EDGAR XBRL filings (10-K filed 2026-02-05; 10-Q filed 2026-04-30; 10-Q filed 2026-07-23; 10-Q filed 2026-07-23) · price via yahoo · computed 2026-09-25 01:02 UTC · runtime 1.36s