Alphabet owns the Google search engine and trades under the stock ticker GOOG.
Alphabet became Google’s parent company in 2015 through a corporate restructuring. Google remained the largest business inside the new holding company, while other activities were organized as separate Alphabet businesses or subsidiaries.
Alphabet has two widely traded share classes associated with the tickers GOOG and GOOGL. GOOG represents Class C shares, which generally carry no voting rights, while GOOGL represents Class A shares with one vote per share. The distinction is important when discussing the company’s stock-market value.
A frequent mistake is calling Alphabet itself “Google” in financial contexts. Google is the principal operating company and brand, but Alphabet is the listed parent corporation whose market capitalization is measured in stock-market rankings.