Trade Desk Trades at 7.8 Times Operating Income Versus Alphabet's 27.8

Insider Monkey··US·Read original
2▲1 ▼1Impact / 5
Summary · why it matters

The Trade Desk's enterprise value stood at approximately 7.8 times trailing operating income at the October 2 close, against 27.8 times for Alphabet, a discount the article argues is too large to dismiss as an accounting footnote. Those are consolidated-company multiples rather than valuations assigned separately to advertising: Alphabet's figure includes Google Cloud and other assets, plus approximately $19 billion of preferred equity added to the standard enterprise value, divided by $147.6 billion of trailing operating income. The Trade Desk's case weakened in its August 6 report for the June quarter, when revenue rose just 3% to $715 million and operating income fell to $101.6 million from $116.8 million, with management acknowledging execution problems. Alphabet's advertising revenue grew approximately 14% in the June quarter, with Search up 17% and YouTube ads up 13%. Insider Monkey's hedge fund database showed 42 Trade Desk holders in Q2 2026, down from 45 in Q1 2026, versus 275 Alphabet holders, up from 265, while the September 15 snapshot showed approximately 88.53 million Trade Desk shares sold short, or 21.3% of float, against 87.39 million Alphabet Class A shares, about 1.5% of the corresponding float.

Impact on assets 2

Communication Services▼ · 1 stocks
Trade Desk Inc
TTD
▼ NegativeCapitalrelevance

Article argues its 7.8x operating income multiple reflects a weakened case after Q2 revenue rose just 3% and operating income fell to $101.6M with acknowledged execution problems.

Artificial Intelligence▲ · 1 stocks
Alphabet Inc Class C
GOOG
▲ PositiveCapitalrelevance

Trades at 27.8x operating income with advertising revenue up ~14% in the June quarter, framed as the premium-valued comparison to Trade Desk's discount.

Off-coverage companies 1

YouTube, LLCPrivate± Mixed
relevance

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