Alphabet’s (GOOGL) stock has climbed 1.4% over the past week, 8.0% over the last month, and an impressive 66.3% over the past 12 months, reflecting strong investor confidence and growing momentum in the tech giant’s business. Wall Street’s analysts are firmly bullish, with a StrongBuy consensus and a 12‑month average price target of $352.46, implying further upside from the last closing price of $338.00.
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Among the most closely watched voices on the stock is Justin Post of Bank of America, who reiterated his Buy rating on Alphabet Class A on January 30, 2026, and maintained a price objective of $370.00. This target suggests meaningful upside from current levels. Post expects Alphabet to deliver an upside quarter in Q4, projecting revenue of $95.9 billion and EPS of $2.65, slightly ahead of the Street’s $95.2 billion and $2.64. He sees potential for stronger‑than‑expected growth in the company’s core search and YouTube advertising businesses.
Post’s thesis leans heavily on a stable digital ad market and the impact of Alphabet’s AI push, especially the release of Gemini 3. He believes search growth could reach 15–16%, above current Street expectations of 13%, while YouTube growth could land in the 14–15% range, also ahead of consensus. He notes that disciplined hiring trends and AI‑driven efficiency gains could support operating margins, with Q4 operating expenses estimated at $28.0 billion, up 13% year over year but still allowing for margin expansion of 119 basis points.
Looking ahead, the analyst highlights that commentary around Q1 will be critical for the stock. He is optimistic that strong Gemini traffic, positive signals on Q1 ad growth, evidence that AI is boosting search monetization, enthusiasm around new AI products such as Agentic, and robust Google Cloud performance and backlog could all support the bullish case. At the same time, he flags risks including the possibility that search results merely meet, rather than beat, high expectations, less ad upside versus Meta, potential margin headwinds from heavy capacity build‑out, and one‑off cost surprises. He has also raised his 2026 capex estimate by 14% to $139 billion, expecting guidance around $140 billion compared with the Street’s $119 billion.
Post remains constructive on Alphabet’s longer‑term upside in both Search and Cloud through 2026, arguing that a growing share of searches in AI‑native formats could drive higher user engagement, better conversion rates, and new monetization opportunities. He also sees Gemini 3.0 and Alphabet’s TPUs as increasingly differentiating its cloud offerings and helping secure large new deals, although he cautions that Alphabet’s elevated valuation—now trading at a price‑to‑earnings multiple above Microsoft—and intensifying competition from other large language model providers and OpenAI’s advertising ambitions could weigh on AI sentiment. This 5‑star analyst ranks 54 out of 11,984 on TipRanks, with a 68.65% success rate and an average return of 25.00% per rating. Never miss a stock rating. Find all the latest ratings on TipRanks’ Top Wall Street Analysts page.