Piper Sandler analysts hiked the price target on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to $140 per share from the prior $128 while remaining Overweight-rated.
The analysts note that Google Search's market share “appears to be holding steady” despite an ultra-aggressive offensive from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing.
“June share at ~93% has actually improved ~50 bps versus late '22. AI is now embedded in Search via Bard / Labs test & Google appears to have a path toward monetization. But we do acknowledge minor loss in browser share to Safari & Edge,” analysts said in a client note.
When it comes to the YTD stock rally of about 35%, analysts still see an attractive valuation.
“Google still trades at a ~15%+ discount on NTM earnings vs the '17-'19 period. We see room for further multiple expansion as the narrative that Google is losing in AI search dissipates… The next ~2-3 quarters for Search estimates also look beatable: Street numbers imply a deceleration in 4-year & 5-year stacks after improving in 1Q23,” the analysts added.