{
  "id": 17154063,
  "title": "Alphabet just had its worst day as a public company. BofA now values Google search at a lower multiple than fossil fuel stocks",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/alphabet-just-had-its-worst-day-as-a-public-company-bofa-now-values",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-30T00:10:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/10/29/alphabet-worst-day-google-search-valuation-energy-sector-bofa/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Alphabet experienced its worst day ever as a public company on Thursday, with its stock falling 12.6% to below $284. The decline wiped out approximately $482 billion in market value, marking the largest single-day drop since the company's initial public offering in 2004. The drop was largely attributed to the search business, which now trades at about 10 times earnings, a lower multiple than energy stocks trading at 13 times earnings. Analysts had previously expected 15% growth in search revenue, but the actual growth was only 12%, falling short of analysts' projections. Additionally, Google Cloud's revenue more than doubled to $30.71 billion, but the company spent $51.4 billion on capital expenditures, more than double the previous year, leading to negative free cash flow of $9.1 billion. BofA's analyst Justin Post had previously valued the entire company at 22 times his 2027 earnings estimate, putting search at about 10 times earnings. The slowdown in search growth is attributed to the increasing influence of AI Overviews in search results, which is expected to negatively impact search growth. Despite this, BofA still maintains a Buy rating on Alphabet shares, with a target price of $380, indicating a lower valuation multiple compared to its previous estimate.",
  "summary": "Search revenue missed forecasts and free cash flow went negative. Bank of America now values Google’s core search business at about 10 times earnings, against 18.7 for the S&P 500.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Qatar Tribune Business",
        "title": "US stocks fall as Alphabet sinks on growth concerns",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/29/us-stocks-fall-as-alphabet-sinks-on-growth-concerns",
        "published": "2026-10-29T21:28:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}