GOOGL vs META.

→No axis separates them by more than 2 of six checks, and the widest is Quality. They score identically on 4 of the six, so the difference between them is narrower than a headline suggests.

	GOOGL	META
Quality	4/6	6/6
Trend analysis	2/6	4/6
Value	2/6	2/6
Growth	5/6	5/6
Health	5/6	5/6
Shareholder returns	2/6	2/6
All checks	20/36	24/36

→Alphabet turns over $445.9B to Meta's $228.2B, 2.0 times as much. Alphabet keeps 54.8% of revenue as profit against 29.8% at Meta.

→Meta keeps more of each sale: gross margin of 81.7% against 60.9%, a gap of 21 points that flows into everything below it.

	GOOGL	META
Gross margin	60.9%	81.7%
Operating margin	33.1%	38.1%
Return on equity	38.1%	26.1%

→Alphabet is the cheaper of the two on earnings, 16.9x against 23.2x. Against their own histories, Alphabet is below its 20.3x median and Meta is above its 23.1x.

	GOOGL	META
Share price	$338.36	$613.48
Market cap	$4.14T	$1.56T
P/E	16.9x	23.2x
P/E, own median own 4-year median / own 11-year median	20.3x	23.1x
P/S	9.3x	6.8x
Free cash flow yield	1.3%	2.6%

→Meta grew revenue faster last year, +27.7% against +20.1% at Alphabet - 8 points apart. Over three years the order is reversed: Meta compounds at +19.9% against +12.5%.

	GOOGL	META
Revenue (TTM)	$445.9B	$228.2B
Revenue growth, 1 year	+20.1%	+27.7%
Revenue CAGR, 3 years	+12.5%	+19.9%
Net income (TTM)	$244.2B	$68.1B
Free cash flow (TTM)	$53.3B	$41.0B

→Alphabet carries much the lighter balance sheet, 0.16x of debt to equity against 0.32x - which matters most in the year a downturn arrives, not this one.

	GOOGL	META
Debt / equity	0.16x	0.32x
Interest coverage	65.6x	45.3x
Cash and short-term investments	$242.5B	$90.3B

→Both pay: Meta yields the more at 0.3% against 0.2%. A yield rises when a price falls, so read it beside the payout checks in each report.

	GOOGL	META
Dividend yield	0.2%	0.3%
Payout ratio	4.1%	7.8%
Years of unbroken dividend	-	-