How to Buy Google Stock – Investing & Trading Guide

Last Updated: June 25, 2023

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How to buy Google Stock? Our easy-to-follow investing and trading guide explains step by step what you have to do to become an Google shareholder.

5-Step Plan: Buying Google Stock

Step 1: Find the best brokerage account

Shares are traded on a stock exchange, and an investor needs a brokerage account to buy and sell shares. The best trading account is the one that enables you as an investor to place buy and sell orders, hold positions and manage your portfolio with low fees. For U.S. markets, I like Charles Schwab and E*Trade. Both brokerage firms are listed on a stock exchange, and their financial status is transparent.

If you consider day trading Google shares, you better choose a direct market access broker where you benefit from fast order executions, order routing options, and a substantial easy-to-borrow short-sell list. The best day trading broker is Cobra Trading.

Step 2: Open your brokerage account

Once you find your preferred online broker, it’s time to open an account. Fortunately, the time of tremendous paperwork belongs to the past and opening a account can be done quickly these days. Fill out the online forms, and add the legal documents required for identification.

Step 3: Fund your brokerage account

Great work! You successfully opened your account with your favorite company. Before you can start investing, it’s necessary to deposit money. Consider the minimum account balance required by your broker before funding the account and transfer the minimum balance or more. It is like a regular bank wire, but the money will be credited to your trading account instead of a checking account. Be aware that day trading stocks in the United States require a minimum of $25,000 of maintained funds if you want to day trade more than three times per 5-day period.

Step 4: Buy Google stock

With the three steps before, you are now all set. So, it is finally time to buy shares of Google Inc. Google is listed on the Nasdaq as its home stock exchange. However, ADRs of the stock can be traded on other stock exchanges, like, for example, in Europe on XETRA.

The stock symbol of Google is GOOG. Use a market order to buy for the next possible price to get your order execution immediately, or use a limit order if you want to buy your shares for a specific price.

Step 5: Monitor your Google position and investment portfolio

Once you buy Google shares, make sure to monitor your portfolio continuously. If you are a long-term investor, frequently check if the company earnings results align with your expectations regarding the company’s growth. If you are a swing trader, ensure proper stop-loss orders are in place and monitor your long position continuously. Finally, if you day trade GOOG stock, monitor your position closely to determine when to exit and reenter the position.

Fees for Investing in Google Stock

There are various fees and commissions involved with investing activities. Banks, online brokers, and stock exchanges need to be paid.

Commissions

Investing fees include commissions paid to the online broker. Commissions are paid for the service a broker offers to the client. The broker connects buyers and sellers and routes orders to the stock exchange, where orders get matched and executed.

Many U.S. brokerage accounts have zero-commission offers. While Robinhood began with this type of commission initiative, most other online brokers offer the same these days. That’s possible because they sell the order flow to third parties. Those third parties make money by mapping buy and sell orders in their own system, which allows them to make money with minimal price discrepancies.

The third party pays for the order flow in exchange, and the broker’s client can trade commission free. It is a win-win, at least when you invest in Google shares. If you day trade Google shares, consider a direct market access broker who routes the orders directly to the stock exchange because the order execution on high volume orders can be beneficial.

Commission Types for Trading Google Shares

Zero Commission: No commission is paid by the trader to the broker
Commission per Traded Share: The trader pays a fee, typically a fraction of a cent, to the broker for each share traded. E.g., 1,000 shares * 0.002 commission per share = $2 commission for the trade. Some online brokers also combine this commission model with a minimum commission per trade.
Commission per Trade: Some brokers still require traders to pay a fixed commission per trade, independently from the number of shares traded. This commission type suits high-volume traders but could be better for investors who trade small share sizes.

Other Fees

Besides commissions, there are other fees charged by a broker:

Inactivity Fees: Some brokers charge clients an inactivity fee if they do not actively trade.
Trading Platform Fees: Access to trading platforms with advanced functionalities might cost a recurring fee.
Real-time Data Fees: Stock exchanges charge brokers for using their live market data. The broker then charges the fee from their clients. Still, in many cases, the broker covers those fees.
Withdrawal and Wire Fees: A broker typically charges $25 for outgoing wires and withdrawals.

Google Financials

Stock research and market analysis of Google shares reveal the following details.

IPO: 2004
Current Stock Price: $123.15
52-Week High: $129.04
Market Capitalization: 1587.5B
Income: 58.6B
Sales: 284.6B
Dividend: $0.0
P/E Ratio: 27.98
Earnings per Share: 4.43
Insider Ownership: 0.28%
Institutional Ownership: 78.6%
Stock Shortable: Yes
Optionable: Yes
Shares Float: 5.92B
Stock Split: 2:1 in 2014
Suitable for day trading: Yes

Stock analysis tools help you analyze Google’s stock quickly and efficiently by using the latest company financials and technical analysis parameters. This helps to define the investing strategy and makes the investing journey a better experience.

What do you know about the financial health of the company?
What is the most recent analyst rating?
How did the EPS develop recently?
What is the company’s outlook?
What were the latest SEC filings?
What is the typical seasonality profile of Google?
Is Google stock undervalued?

Those are some of the most common questions for investors interested in buying Google shares, while day traders are interested in answering different questions like:

Is there a high relative volume in the pre-market trading of Google today?
Will the stock gap up at the open?
How volatile was the stock price in the first 15 minutes compared to the 5-day average?

Some tools suit the needs of all types of investors and traders to make their analysis and due diligence process easier and more efficient.

Top 3 Trading Tools for Investors

TradingView
TrendSpider
Finviz

Interesting Google Facts

Google’s founders got their first “office” space in Susan Wojcicki’s garage. Susan later became the CEO of YouTube.
Antitrust violations, real or suggested, have plagued Google in recent years, it has paid more than $7 billion in fines levied by the European Union for unfair competition practices
The name Google was derived from the math term, “googol”, which denotes the number 1 followed 100 zeros
Yahoo passed on an opportunity to gain ownership control of Google in 2002 with an investment of $3 billion
CEO: Sundar Pichai (notably, a Stanford alumnus, just like Google’s founders)
Headquarters: Mountain View, CA
# Employees :approx. 150,000
Market Cap: $1.8 trillion

Summary

Like most investors, you have probably dreamed of buying shares of a company that skyrockets in price quickly, making you enough money to make your dreams come true. The chances are that Google was recently the best buy alert from one of the best stock picking services, or you plan to buy shares of Google today.

Investing in individual stocks of Google has paid out for investors so far. Also, many exchange-traded funds, index funds and mutual funds hold Google stock, and the stock price of Google is currently near all-time highs. Day traders like this stock because of the high trading volume and volatility and use online trading platforms to purchase Google shares frequently.

How to Purchase Google Stock Online?

Follow the 5 outlined steps

Find the best brokerage account
Open your brokerage account
Fund your brokerage account
Buy Google stock
Monitor your Google position continuously

FAQ

How to Research the Fundamentals of Google Stock?

The company fundamentals of Google stock are broadly available with all leading trading tools. As an investor, you can use the free tools. As a day trader, consider subscribing to a day trading tool with more features like real-time stock scans.

How to Evaluate Google’s Financial Health?

Evaluating Google’s stock financial health is possible by asking your financial advisor to create reports with insightful information about the company or using stock research tools that provide you with company financial insights.

Is Google stock a good investment?

Google stock investments have paid out big since the stock market listing, making buying their shares a good investment strategy. Over 60% of institutions own the company shares, proving that investment professionals also trust the company.

What Order Type Should I Use to Place the Order for GOOG Stock?

Use a market order to ensure that you get the number of shares you want and when the price of the trade execution is not your priority. If you want to buy and sell Google stock for a specific price, use a limit order. However, using a limit order also means that your trade will only be executed if the limit is reached.

Should I Buy Fractional Shares of Google Stock?

Buying fractional shares of Google is a great idea for smaller portfolios, where investing in a diversified portfolio is only possible when fractional shares are traded.

How to Sell Google Shares?

Selling Google shares can be done via the brokerage account where you bought the shares. Decide how many shares of Google in your portfolio you want to sell and place a sell market order for immediate fills at the best possible price or a sell limit order to sell the shares for a specific price.

Does Google Pay Dividends?

No. Google does not pay dividends. Last quarter they paid a dividend of $0.0 per share to shareholders.