‘GOOGL Could Hit This Level Soon’: Josh Beck Sets Target Ahead of Earnings

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has spent the past year transforming itself from an AI laggard into an AI leader, with only Nvidia standing in the way of its claim to the world’s most valuable company.

Indeed, investors not long ago feared that generative AI would undermine Google Search itself. Today, that same technology is viewed as a growth engine, putting Alphabet in a strong position to capitalize on the AI wave rather than fall victim to it.

In fact, Raymond James analyst Josh Beck believes Alphabet’s improving AI credentials are strong enough to warrant a rethink of his GOOGL model.

“While we were constructive on checks/DOJ potential last year, our updated bottom-up analysis of GCP (GPU, TPU, PaaS) and Search (Core, AIO, AIM, Gemini) leads to a material upward revision in 2026/27 estimates with RJ sitting at the Street high for 2027 revenue,” Beck, who ranks among the top 4% of Street stock experts, said.

As such, Beck has now not only upgraded his GOOGL rating from Outperform (i.e., Buy) to Strong Buy, but has also raised his price target from $315 to a Street-high of $400. Should that figure be met, investors will be sitting on gains of 22% a year from now. (To watch Beck’s track record, click here)

The 5-star analyst thinks the company is likely at the start of a period marked by a strengthening AI stack narrative and upward estimate revisions that might “create one of the highest quality top-line AI acceleration stories in the public universe.” For 2026, Beck’s “baseline assumption” is that performance across mega-cap Internet stocks will be driven primarily by improvements in the AI stack narrative and underlying fundamentals, rather than by a “mean reversion trade” focused on buying compressed multiples and selling elevated ones.

As for the numbers, Beck is calling for GCP growth of 44% in 2026 and 36% in 2027, compared with Street expectations of 34% and 31%, respectively. This outlook is based on approximately 2 million TPUs generating around $25 billion in ARR, roughly 0.75 million GPUs contributing about $20 billion in ARR, Gemini API PaaS at approximately $10 billion in ARR, and Vertex PaaS at roughly $2.5 billion in ARR by the end of 2027. While each 1 million TPU units sold at $20,000 could represent a $20 billion revenue opportunity, hardware sales are not included in the model at this stage, as Beck believes further progress is needed in the low-level software stack, such as TorchTPU.

In Search, Beck forecasts growth of 13% in both 2026 and 2027, vs. Street estimates of 11% and 9%. This assumes declines in core search of 5% to 10% are more than offset by the scaling of AIO, AIM, and Gemini to 4 billion, 2 billion, and 1 billion daily active users, respectively, by the end of 2027, along with high-single-digit CPC (cost per click) growth driven by a rising mix of AI-powered search queries that improve context and conversion.

In a bull case, Beck thinks U.S. AI Assistant ARPU could reach $750, as more complex, context-rich queries drive a “structural improvement” in CTR (click-through rate) and CVR (conversion rate) and establish a higher ceiling for CPCs. For Google, Beck expects AI Assistants to be “diffused across various surfaces,” primarily AIO, followed by AIM and Gemini.

That’s Beck’s view, but how does the rest of Wall Street stack up? The Raymond James analyst now joins 25 others in the bullish camp on GOOGL, while 7 Hold ratings aren’t enough to shake the overall verdict: a Strong Buy consensus rating. (See GOOGL stock forecast)

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.