Alphabet (GOOG) has a 12-month price target of $423.95 and a five-year base case of $710.20 by October 2031, a total return of 121.41%, and the article rates the stock a buy with moderately high confidence. Shares traded around $318.28 early Friday, down 7.72% for the week and 8.38% for the month but up 26.37% over 12 months. Second-quarter revenue rose 24.2% to $119.80 billion, while Cloud segment revenue reached $24.77 billion and its operating margin expanded to 35.6% from 20.7%. On the other side, capex doubled to $44.92 billion, free cash flow turned negative at $5.86 billion, long-term debt rose from $46.5 billion to $98.2 billion, and buybacks were suspended. The bear case is $365.73.
Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.
Read the original on Yahoo Finance ↗
Keywords
GOOGLvaluationAI investmentshare buybacks
Open a keyword to see other news on the same topic.
Related tickers and likely impact
MSFT
▲ Likely positiveMicrosoft
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Systems Software |
| Market cap | $3.9T |
| Close on 10/26/2026 | 532.60 |
| Change that session | +1.54% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
Related news
- Alphabet's 2 Classes of Common Stock Trade About 1% Apart. Here's the One I'd Buy.
Alphabet's Class A shares (GOOGL) trade about 1% above Class C shares (GOOG), roughly $335 versus $331 at the time of writing. Only Class A carries a vote; Class B shares, which carry 10 votes each and don't trade publicly, are held mainly by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who had around 53% of voting power as of April 6. All classes otherwise share the same 22-cent quarterly dividend and claim on net income. Alphabet bought far more Class C stock than Class A from 2023 through 2025 and made no buybacks in the first half of 2026, while the Class A premium has stayed near 1% since September. The author sees the vote as nearly symbolic given the founders' majority, so Class C offers the same business at a slightly lower valuation; for a $10,000 investment, it buys about a third of a share more, roughly $114 of extra stock. The gap has held within around 2% since 2022 and may narrow if buybacks resume.
- Alphabet Stock Is Up 26.5% Over the Past Year. Still a Buy at $320?
Alphabet stock is up 26.5% over the past year, closing at $320.21 on October 23, but remains 20.5% below its record close of $402.62 on May 13. The slide since May followed an $80 billion equity plan announced in June and a raised 2026 capex guidance of $195 billion to $205 billion, which pushed shares down 7.13% on July 23. According to Scotiabank estimates cited by Reuters, Anthropic has committed roughly $111 billion to Google Cloud, about 22% of the unit's disclosed backlog. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said the payback period on AI servers is less than 2 years in aggregate. Analysts expect revenue to rise from $500.14 billion in 2026 to $626.82 billion in 2027, with third-quarter results due October 28.
- Alphabet (GOOGL) vs. MSFT and AMZN: Can AI Investments and Google Cloud Growth Unlock a 26% Upside?
The article summarizes a bullish case on Alphabet (GOOGL) from Astute Optics - US's Substack. Shares traded at $334.76 as of October 21st 2026, with trailing and forward P/E of 17.62 and 22.83, and gained 35.20% over 12 months versus 20.50% for Amazon. Bulls point to Google Cloud revenue jumping 82% to $24.8 billion and quarterly revenue rising 24% to $119.8 billion, backed by a net cash position of $144.3 billion, while capital spending plans were raised to $195 billion to $205 billion. The average analyst price target of $422 implies roughly 26% upside, but the article warns of risks including AI spending not converting into earnings, regulatory scrutiny, AI search competition and advertising budget cuts, given over 70% of 2025 revenue came from online advertising.
- Alphabet Offers the Most Compelling Blend of Asymmetric AI Upside and Safety Across the Magnificent 7
The author argues that Alphabet offers the best mix of AI upside and safety among the Magnificent 7, citing 950 million monthly active users for the Gemini app and Google Cloud revenue of $24.77 billion, up 82% year over year. Second-quarter revenue reached $119.80 billion, up 24.2%, with operating margin widening to 34%. The author considers the P/E of 15 generous because a $99.03 billion unrealized equity gain inflated recent net income, though the balance sheet is strong. The main risk named is spending: 2026 capex guidance of $175 billion to $185 billion pushed second-quarter free cash flow to negative $5.86 billion, long-term debt rose from $46.5 billion to $98.2 billion, and buybacks were suspended. The author says investors should watch whether Cloud growth and earnings consistency keep pace with the capex expansion.
- Microsoft vs. Alphabet: Is GOOGL’s Cloud Growth Worth More Than Investors Think?
Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL) trade at forward P/E ratios of 25.13 and 22.83, respectively. Google Cloud revenue jumped 82% to $24.8 billion in the second quarter, with operating income rising from $2.8 billion to $8.8 billion, while Azure and other cloud services grew 43%. Both companies face heavy infrastructure spending: Microsoft spent $35.8 billion on property and equipment, pushing its cloud gross margin down to 65%, while Alphabet spent $44.9 billion, leaving roughly negative $5.85 billion in quarterly free cash flow. The article argues Alphabet's $9.11 EPS is unreliable because about $98 billion came from net other income, so its 30% operating-income growth better reflects underlying performance. Microsoft has a more diversified earnings base and higher consolidated operating margins, but the key question is whether either company can turn AI demand into cash after paying for infrastructure.
- 1 Analyst Thinks Alphabet Stock Could Jump 20% on AI Chip Demand. Is He Right?
J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth raised his price target for Alphabet stock to $425, about 23% above the current price, betting that selling its custom TPU AI processors to other companies will accelerate cloud revenue. Google Cloud sales rose 82% to $24.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026, and Anmuth thinks cloud revenue could double in the third quarter. Piper Sandler's Thomas Champion estimates Google's processor sales could reach $104 billion by 2028, compared with Alphabet's total second-quarter revenue of $120 billion. Alphabet reported Q2 EPS of $9.11, up 294%, but some investors worry about its roughly $200 billion AI infrastructure spending this year. The stock trades at a trailing P/E of about 17, versus a tech sector average of 33.
Related markets
Latest news
- Will the Fed raise interest rates several more times?
The Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged at its October 27-28 meeting, after raising them by 0.25 percentage points in September to a 3.75-4% range, and investors are watching for signals from Chair Kevin Warsh on next steps. Inflation remains high: September CPI rose 3.7% year on year, while core CPI rose 2.6%, 0.3 percentage points above August. Meanwhile, the housing market remains sluggish as mortgage rates exceed 7%, and the labor market is unusual, with few layoffs but also limited hiring. According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, markets put about a 10% chance on a rate hike in October but over 80% for December. Krishna Guha of Evercore ISI said Warsh's message fits a scenario of a hike roughly once a quarter, though this is not a fixed path.
- One company fined for failing to report planned trades
The State Securities Commission (SSC) fined Đầu tư – Xây dựng – Thương mại – Sản xuất CNC 435 million dong, equal to 3.5% of the actual traded securities value at par, for failing to report its planned trades. The company is linked to Vương Tấn Hát, chairman of the board of Công ty CP Đầu tư và Xây dựng Công trình 3 (CT3), and bought 1,242,379 CT3 shares on October 17, 2025. The purchase brought total holdings of the company and related parties to 2,238,734 shares, or 25.44% of voting shares, without a public tender offer, which drew a 225 million dong fine. The company was also suspended from securities trading for 3.5 months, must give up voting rights on the shares involved, and must sell shares to reduce its stake below the public tender threshold within six months, with total fines of nearly 660 million dong.
- Why SoFi Stock Popped Today
Shares of SoFi Technologies rose more than 13% after the digital financial services provider issued an optimistic growth forecast. Third-quarter adjusted net revenue surged 44% to $1.4 billion, members grew 35% to 17.1 million, financial products rose 44% to 26.7 million, and adjusted net income soared 74% to $243 million. SoFi expects full-year 2026 adjusted net revenue to grow 40% to $5.04 billion, with net income of $840 million and EPS of $0.61, and sees adjusted net revenue of $6.4 billion and EPS of $0.90 in 2027. CEO Anthony Noto said the company is adding more members and products to create long-term shareholder value.
- Bithumb discloses data leak after internal system breach: Report
South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb is investigating the extent of a data leak after hackers breached its in-house mobile system, which employees use for internal communication and work, earlier this week. Bithumb discovered the breach on Tuesday and notified the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission the same day. The exchange said its internal work system is separated from its virtual asset trading system, so customer virtual assets could not be accessed through this breach, while it was still checking whether member data was involved. The incident is part of a wave of cyberattacks on South Korea's financial sector, with 16 financial firms hit as of October 14, according to Governor Lee Chan-jin. Daishin Securities said personal and credit information of 38,490 customers had been leaked.
- What Could JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Losing $1.4 Billion In Advisory Assets Signal?
A large advisory group at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) has moved to Rockefeller Capital Management, taking more than US$1.4 billion in client assets with it. The departing advisers were part of J.P. Morgan's wealth management arm, serving high-net-worth and family office clients in key U.S. markets. The move gives Rockefeller Capital Management a bigger presence in the high-net-worth advisory segment previously served by J.P. Morgan teams. The article notes this is only one part of JPMorgan Chase's business, a global bank and financial holding company whose wealth unit sits within a much broader mix of retail, corporate and investment banking.
- The first 250 trading sessions of a listed stock
TCX shares of TCBS reached their 250th trading session since listing on HOSE, down 12.79% from the opening price of the first session, though they had at one point risen about 30.12%. F88 rose 92% on reaching the same milestone, while AIG and CRV fell 32% and 28% respectively, showing no common formula for first-year performance. Since late 2025, 10 IPO companies have raised a total of 60,900 billion dong, more than nine times the 6,500 billion dong raised by 16 companies in 2021-2024, and experts stress post-listing quality, transparency and governance. Most of the new stocks are trading below their IPO prices, and the article notes that performance also depends on business outlook, interest rates and investor sentiment.
Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo
Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.