In previous posts, I’ve looked at the capital structures of other technology companies, including Facebook (FB) and Apple (AAPL) and concluded that each would benefit by adding more debt to their respective capital bases.Google (GOOG, GOOGL) is another large-cap tech firm that also uses very little debt despite its massive degree of profitability. Nonetheless, by the shape of its WACC vs. D/E curve, you can observe that Google has little to gain from issuing more debt.The curve normally demonstrates a notable U-shaped design in some fashion. Facebook and Apple’s curves were markedly similar to each other. Google, too, seems to optimize its capital structure at around 80%-85% equity and 15%-20% debt. However, in Google’s case, unlike with Facebook and Apple, the curve is almost flat on the initial descent into the trough where the company’s cost of capital is theoretically minimized. Based on my calculations, if Google were to optimize its capital structure to something along the lines of 85% equity and 15% debt – up from its current 99/1 split – it would be just 2.4% accretive to the company’s share price. This is low to the point where a debt offering would provide little additional benefit.-ValuationIn a previous post, I noted that Google’s median fair value price came in at $767 per share. I still believe this is about right and continue to hold a long position in its Class C shares (GOOG). Those figures came off a cost of equity of just above 8%. If I were to imply greater conservatism in my assumptions by boosting the expected return (cost of equity) by 50 basis points and lowering the perpetual growth rate from 2.4% (as I used in my model then) to 2.0%, this would lower GOOG’s median price target to $663, or 6% lower than today’s closing price of $705.63. Adjusting the cost of capital by 50 basis point in both directions (holding the perpetual growth rate constant at 2%) would give a price range running from $622-$710 (middle bar of first graph below). If the long-term growth rate is also adjusted by +/- 50 basis points, this provides a total valuation range of $602-$742.-ConclusionGoogle is a company with what I refer to as a “social monopoly” type of business model – its power resides in the fact that people benefit from using it simply because other people use it as well (similar to Facebook). It spent some time below $700 per share in the days after the Brexit vote, and is something I plan on continuing to own unless it gets fairly expensive ($760+). It is not as cheap as it was at this point last year when, despite the difficulties of the market as a whole, it ran up 49% in the second half of 2015. Holding its current business prospects constant, anything below the price range offered above would be an absolute steal.