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Investing.com - Raymond James raised its price target on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock to $275.00 from $210.00 on Friday, while maintaining an Outperform rating. The tech giant, currently trading near its 52-week high of $257.58, has demonstrated remarkable strength with a 54.93% return over the past year.
The investment firm cited "incrementally more bullish" checks on search revenues as the primary driver behind the significant price target increase.
Raymond James updated its 2025 and 2026 estimates for Alphabet based on these positive search revenue indicators.
The new $275 price target is based on 21.5x 2027 P/E, representing approximately a 30% discount compared to what the firm categorizes as "AI Winners" (NVIDIA, Microsoft, Broadcom, Oracle) and roughly a 10% premium to the S&P.
Raymond James also outlined a $350 bull case for Alphabet in its sum-of-the-parts analysis, driven by core search, AI Search/Gemini, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
In other recent news, Google has reached an agreement to potentially invest in THG Ingenuity, valuing the demerged arm of THG at approximately $1.01 billion. This move signifies Google’s continued interest in expanding its investment portfolio within the tech sector. Meanwhile, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is reportedly in discussions with AI startup Anthropic for a cloud computing deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars. This potential agreement would provide Anthropic with significant computing infrastructure from Google’s cloud division, marking a substantial investment in AI technology.
In response to OpenAI’s launch of its Atlas browser, Scotiabank has maintained its Sector Outperform rating on Alphabet, suggesting confidence in the company’s ability to navigate emerging challenges. The bank noted that while Atlas could divert some queries from Google, the tech giant remains well-equipped to handle such competition. Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster also commented that Google has the necessary tools to respond to the Atlas browser challenge effectively. These developments highlight Google’s strategic maneuvers in both investment and competitive positioning in the tech industry.
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