Citizens JMP analyst Andrew Boone upgraded Alphabet (GOOGL) stock to Hold from Buy with a price target of $220. The analyst noted the strength in Google’s AI Overviews feature, which is available in more than 200 countries and in over 40 languages. The 5-star analyst expects the tailwinds from the AI Overviews feature in Google Search to outweigh the headwinds from the share loss resulting from OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
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AI Overviews uses generative AI (artificial intelligence) to quickly provide users with concise summaries of search results.
Top Analyst Turns Bullish on GOOGL Stock
Boone noted that OpenAI has 800 million weekly active users compared to Google’s more than 5 billion active users. With AI Overviews becoming generally available in the U.S. as of May and driving a 10% query growth in testing, the top analyst believes that AI is a “net tailwind” for Alphabet.
The analyst expects the AI Overviews feature to expand from 1.5 billion monthly users in Q1 2025 to 4 billion by Q3 2025, as it is projected to cover about two-thirds of queries by the next quarter, based on his firm’s estimates. Assuming Google’s 10% query growth holds as AI answers a broader set of questions and offers better results, Boone thinks Google may see a mid-single-digit query growth tailwind in the third quarter of this year. He noted that AI is expanding the search opportunity by answering a broader array of queries and boosting monetization by better understanding user intent.
“Net/net, AI is growing the use of search at a faster rate than ChatGPT is taking share,” concluded Boone.
Boone ranks 795th among more than 9,600 analysts on TipRanks. He has a success rate of 53%, with an average return per rating of 8.5%.
Is GOOGL Stock a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Overall, Wall Street has a Moderate Buy consensus rating on Alphabet stock based on 29 Buys and 10 Holds. The average GOOGL stock price target of $199.20 indicates a 15% upside potential from current levels. GOOGL stock is down more than 8% year-to-date.
