Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) stock has risen 73.6% over the past year, gaining 2.9% in the last month but slipping 2.0% in the past week. Wall Street’s analysts are firmly bullish, with a Strong Buy consensus and a 12‑month average price target of $375.48 versus the last closing price of $331.25. That target implies meaningful upside over the coming year, reflecting growing confidence that Alphabet’s aggressive push into artificial intelligence and cloud computing can sustain its strong momentum.
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One of the most upbeat voices is Brian Pitz of BMO Capital Markets, who reiterated his Buy rating on GOOGL on February 5, 2026, and lifted his price target to $400.00. That target sits well above the current 12‑month consensus, signaling his conviction that the market is still underestimating Alphabet’s earnings power. Pitz points to a “very impressive” fourth quarter of 2025, where Alphabet delivered a 2% revenue beat and a 6.5% earnings-per-share beat, mainly driven by stronger-than-expected performance in Search and Google Cloud.
According to Pitz, Search revenue rose 16% year over year excluding currency effects, marking the fastest growth since early 2022. This acceleration is tied to Alphabet’s successful integration of AI into its core Search experience, which is helping drive user engagement and advertiser demand. While YouTube slightly missed expectations, weighed down by tough comparisons to prior political advertising, the analyst believes the strength in Search and Cloud more than compensates and underpins Alphabet’s long-term growth story.
The real star of the quarter, in Pitz’s view, is Alphabet’s AI and cloud business. Google Cloud revenue surged 48% year over year, and management highlighted that Google Cloud Platform is growing “much higher” than overall cloud revenue. Gemini, Alphabet’s flagship AI model, has reached 750 million monthly active users, and the company’s models now process over 10 billion tokens per minute. Importantly for investors, Alphabet is driving AI adoption while sharply cutting its cost to serve, which supports higher capital expenditure plans and, ultimately, improved profitability. A rapidly expanding cloud backlog, which jumped 158% year over year to $240 billion, adds further visibility to future revenue.
Pitz labels Alphabet a “clear AI All-Star” and maintains it as a top pick, arguing that the company’s scale, technology leadership, and ability to fold AI directly into existing products give it a meaningful competitive advantage. Reflecting this optimism, he raised his 2026 GAAP EPS estimate to $12.13 and significantly boosted expected capital spending for 2026 and 2027. This N-star analyst ranks #265 out of 11,984 on TipRanks, with a 69.25% success rate and an average return of 16.70% per rating, adding weight to his bullish call on GOOGL. Never miss a stock rating. Find all the latest ratings on TipRanks’ Top Wall Street Analysts page.