Apple Inc. vs ALPHABET INC.. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Two companies worth around four and a half trillion dollars apiece, and for once the market prices them almost identically, Apple near 35 times trailing earnings and Alphabet near 39. Alphabet runs the slightly fatter income statement, a 36% operating margin and 27% net to Apple's 32% and 27%. Apple's vast return on equity, near 115%, owes more to an equity base hollowed out by buybacks than to a wider moat, and it carries more debt, 0.85 to Alphabet's 0.17. With the multiples this close, what the prices disagree on is mostly mix: a hardware annuity on one side, an advertising franchise with a cloud business attached on the other.
Comparison updated 2026-06-15.
| Metric | AAPL | GOOGL |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $315.32 | $357.17 |
| Market cap | $4.64T | $4.37T |
| Sector | Computer Hardware | Software |
| Stage | Mature | Mature |
| Implied growth (priced in) | +32.1% | — |
| P/E | 38.2 | 27.2 |
| P/B | 43.60 | 9.13 |
| P/S | 10.29 | 10.35 |
| EV/EBITDA | 31.1 | 29.9 |
| Revenue growth | +12.4% | +17.4% |
| Gross margin | 49.3% | — |
| Operating margin | 32.3% | 36.1% |
| Net margin | 27.1% | 27.1% |
| Return on equity | 115.1% | 23.9% |
| Return on assets | 33.0% | 16.3% |
| Return on invested capital | 61.6% | 20.0% |
| FCF yield | 2.8% | 1.5% |
| Dividend yield | 0.3% | 0.2% |
| Debt / equity | 0.85 | 0.17 |
| Current ratio | 1.07 | 1.92 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 7.61 | 7.72 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 5 / 9 | 4 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.