Time to buy Google

Article Excerpt

GOOGLE INC. $607 (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 322.3 million; Market cap: $195.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.0; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.google.com) operates the world’s leading Internet-search engine. The company’s search dominance helps it sell ads on its web sites and on sites owned by others. Ads now account for 97% of Google’s revenue. Google continues to expand rapidly. It now offers a range of other services, such as Gmail (email), YouTube (video sharing) and Google Chrome (web browser). These services help draw more users to Google’s sites. That lets it sell more ads and charge higher ad rates. The company recently launched two new services that should continue to fuel its growth: Its Android smartphone operating system will help it profit as more people access the Internet through mobile devices instead of computers. As well, its new Google+ social-networking site has already attracted over 20 million users since late June 2011…