As Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) navigates an intensifying battle for Artificial Intelligence (AI) talent, Citizens analyst Andrew Boone has issued his 12-month rating for the Google share price.
On June 22, Boone reaffirmed his ‘Market Outperform’ rating and $515 price target on the Google share price. Boone highlighted talent retention risks and the challenges associated with acquihires, citing the recent departure of Google VP of Engineering and Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer to OpenAI.
He noted that the departure revives a bearish case from two to three years ago. At the time, concerns were raised that Alphabet would lose top AI talent to competitors, thereby potentially undermining its ability to maintain a leading position in AI development.
Despite these risks, Boone maintained a cautiously positive outlook on the Google share price as he continued to monitor executive movements in the AI sector. He also highlighted Alphabet’s previous $2.7 billion agreement to license Character.ai’s technology, a deal that underscored the company’s commitment to strengthening its AI capabilities.
“Going backwards, the bear case on Google from 2 to 3 years ago was that it would lose talent to OpenAI and Anthropic and not be able to catch up in AI development. We continue to monitor executive movements for that reason,” Boone noted.
Google share price forecast and performance
As a result of Boone’s coverage of Google shares, the average forecast for Alphabet stock is about $427.38, at press time, according to data from TipRanks.
Year-to-date, Google stock has gained about 9.8%, trading at around $345.81 at the time of publication. As a result, the company had a market capitalization of approximately $ trillion.
As such, Boone’s $515 price target implies a 48.9% upside from current levels, significantly above the broader analyst consensus target of $427.38, which suggests a 23.6% gain.
