On Monday, July 27, analysts from Phillip Securities revealed that their conviction in the stock of Google’s parent company, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), has increased relative to the previous note they issued to investors.
Specifically, the firm’s experts replaced the preceding ‘Accumulate’ – roughly ‘Moderate Buy’ – recommendation with an outright ‘Buy’ rating while also raising their 12-month price target from $425 to $450.
According to the latest Phillip Securities note, the upgrade is the result of Google’s strong revenue growth in recent months, as revealed by the July 22 quarterly filing and the estimate that the blue-chip firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem will continue driving expansion.
Wall Street sets Google stock price target for the next 12 months
Zooming out, the latest Alphabet stock rating revision is largely in line with the attitude expressed by Wall Street as a whole. Indeed, GOOGL shares are seen as a ‘Strong Buy,’ and expected to rise 30.23% to $427.35, per the data Finbold retrieved from TipRanks on July 27.
Overall, Google equity boasts 36 ratings assigned in the last three months and as many as 31 positive recommendations. Meanwhile, no Wall Street analyst urged selling the stock within the timeframe, and only 5 see the shares as a ‘Hold.’
Furthermore, the vast majority of notes issued following the July 22 earnings were accompanied by ‘Buy’ recommendations, though multiple also featured price forecast downgrades.
Still, neither phenomenon was universal, with, for example, BMO raising the price target from $455 to $465, and with UBS, D.A. Davidson, and Rosenblatt Securities all positioning GOOGL stock as a ‘Hold.’
GOOGL stock drops on latest earnings despite Wall Street optimism
Elsewhere, investor reaction to the earnings report was hardly enthusiastic. While Google stock remains up 4.11% year-to-date (YTD) and entered a rather strong uptrend on Monday morning, it remains, at $328.09, 4.34% in the red relative to its price ahead of the quarterly filing.
The backlash was triggered by mounting expenditure on AI, diminishing margins, and a slight earnings per share (EPS) miss.
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