To be perfectly honest, some folks hold shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) solely because it’s the parent company of Google. Don’t forget, however, that you can also own GOOG stock to get exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing technology.

Either way, you’ll be moving with the ebb and flow of the tech market when you invest in Alphabet. Along with that comes certain hazards, such as the ongoing global shortage in semiconductors and other technology components.

Another common problem in the tech sector is that sometimes, stocks get to be overpriced. After all, it might seem impossible for GOOG stock to keep going up after such a strong year.

On the other hand, just because a stock has rallied, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s overvalued. Indeed, betting against Alphabet now could be a mistake as the company remains an extraordinary revenue generator.

A Closer Look at GOOG Stock

Contrarian investors might balk at the idea of calling a quadruple-digit stock “cheap.”

I completely understand that objection. Nevertheless, we can actually find reasons to consider GOOG stock (and its companion, GOOGL stock) a bargain in the tech sector.

For one thing, the stock is taking a breather, which is normal and healthy.

After soaring from $1,700 in January 2021 to nearly $3,000 in September, the Alphabet share price basically went nowhere for two full months.

Market technicians might call that a “consolidation period,” but regular folks can just call it a chance to get in before the next leg up.

Thus, momentum traders should be quite satisfied with GOOG stock’s price action this year. But, what about hard-nosed value investors?

Relax – everything’s rock-solid there, too. Consider this: Alphabet’s trailing 12-month price-to-earnings ratio is just 27.84.

That’s reasonable for a technology stock in 2021. So, despite the stock’s impressive rally, investing in Alphabet isn’t really such a pricey proposition.

Firing On All Cylinders… or Segments

If you’re still not convinced that GOOG stock deserves to have its four-digit price, just look at Alphabet’s recent financial data.

Pick a segment – any segment. No matter which one you choose, Alphabet (and particularly, Google) exhibited year-over-year growth during 2021’s third quarter:

• Search and Other: $26 billion (rounded, in 2020’s third quarter) to $38 billion (third quarter of 2021)
• YouTube Ads: $5 billion to $7.2 billion
• Network: $5.7 billion to $8 billion
• Advertising: $37 billion to $53 billion
• Cloud: $3.4 billion to $5 billion

Furthermore, Alphabet/Google grew its revenues year-over-year from $46 billion to $65 billion.

In addition, the company increased its employee head count from roughly 130,000 to 150,000.

This occurred during a nationwide worker shortage, mind you.

Finally, I should report that Alphabet increased its diluted earnings per share from $16.40 in the year-ago quarter, to $27.99 in 2021’s third quarter.

Return of the JEDI?

By now, you should be convinced that Alphabet is in hyper-growth mode across multiple business segments.

Of course, this expansion pace means that Alphabet must have some big-ticket clients.

I’d say that the U.S. government would count as a big-ticket client, wouldn’t you?

As Alphabet recently reported, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is preparing to rename/replace its JEDI cloud procurement framework with JWCC.

According to the press release, JWCC may be used by the DoD to “store personnel records, analyze recruitment, keep medical records, or implement advanced cloud solutions beyond storage or basic analytics.”

It certainly sounds like Google’s cloud segment would be a great fit for JWCC.

Now, don’t get too excited yet. Alphabet acknowledges that the request for proposals (RFP) for JWCC hasn’t been issued yet, and Google/Alphabet hasn’t (yet) been invited to bid on the project.

You should be glad to know, however, that if  if Google/Alphabet is invited to be part of the JWCC contract, the company “will absolutely bid.”

Call it JEDI or call it JWCC – either way, this could be quite lucrative for Alphabet if the company’s picked for the DoD’s project.

The Bottom Line

Don’t be deterred by GOOG/GOOGL stock’s seemingly high price tag.

As long as Alphabet’s growing its revenues, the share price can still be justified.

And if Alphabet gets tapped to provide cloud services for the JWCC project, don’t be surprised if Wall Street celebrates by pushing the stock price even higher.

On the date of publication, David Moadel did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.