This Single Stock as Lucrative as a Tech ETF?

If you hold Google Inc. (NASDAQ/GOOG) in your portfolio, you own one of the best companies in the world and a top investment opportunity. 

The company just surpassed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ/AAPL) to become the most valuable brand worldwide with an overall value of $158.84 billion, compared to the $147.9 billion assigned to Apple in the Millward Brown’s 2014 BrandZ rankings. (Source: “BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands,” Millward Brown web site, last accessed May 22, 2014.) 

Apple’s decline in brand perception was attributed to the lack of new products by the “iPhone” and “iPad” maker, something that has previously hurt Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ/MSFT) over the past decade. Apple has been modifying its products, but there has not been an earth-shattering new product for quite some time. If Apple wants to avoid the same fate that trumped Microsoft when it only had its MS operating system, then it needs to act. 

Meanwhile, Google continues to show investors and Wall Street why it deserves to be the top technology play and investment opportunity in the stock market, bar none. 

Google recently split its shares on a two-for-one basis to make the stock more available as a mass market investment opportunity. The stock still trades for more than $530.00 a share, but trust me when I say that Google has excellent long-term potential as an above-average investment opportunity. 

Unlike Apple at this time, Google is highly innovative and is thinking outside the box. No longer simply looking at itself as a search engine, Google has been working on numerous advanced technologies in both hardware and software, which makes it a better investment opportunity. 

From developing a self-driving car to drones, and most recently, the $3.2-billion acquisition of Nest Labs, Inc.—a developer of next-generation home consumer devices, such as thermostats and smoke alarms—Google is undergoing a major transformation and is an excellent investment opportunity. 

Google no longer sells mobile phones after dumping this business off on the Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group Limited. (Google has retained its “Android” operating platform.) The divestiture makes sense, as the mobile market has become extremely competitive and dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 

In my view, the addition of Google is like buying a technology-based private equity fund due to the company’s desire to branch out. The company is looking at spending as much as $30.0 billion to acquire foreign technology companies, which makes Google even more of an investment opportunity. 

You can pick up shares of Google or play via call options, which would require less money upfront via leverage and would maximize the risk. 

This This Single Stock as Lucrative as a Tech ETF? article was originally posted at Daily Gains Letter