Alphabet price target raised to $470 from $420 at Pivotal Research

Pivotal Research raised the firm’s price target on Alphabet (GOOGL) (GOOG) to Street-high $470 from $420 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. Alphabet reported a “much stronger-than-expected ” Q1, including a fifth straight quarter of accelerating year-over-year search revenue growth of 19%, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says the company’s cloud revenue growth accelerated for the fourth straight quarter at 63%, well ahead of its 48% forecast. Pivotal upped its search and cloud revenue forecasts “substantially,” which it notes are partially offset by Alphabet’s “materially higher” spending.