Sell-side on Alphabet (GOOGL): Despite a stellar Q4 report, shares slide on CapEx concerns

Pivotal Research raises PT to USD 420 (prev. 400) and keeps a ‘Buy’ rating; reported much stronger than exp. Q4 results & firm says Alphabet posted its fourth straight Q of accelerating Y/Y search rev. growth of 17%. Search is a "resilient cash cow with pricing power," driving Alphabet' "best-in- class Gemini AI"
Canaccord raises PT to USD 415 (prev. 390) and keeps a ‘Buy’ rating; Cos. search momentum & cloud growth acceleration reinforce its AI investment case. The firm believes Alphabet should be a core holding in large-cap tech portfolios
BMO Capital raises PT to USD 400 (prev. 343) and keeps an ‘Outperform’ rating; said it reported a very impressive Q & Google remains a clear leader across the AI stack
JPMorgan raises PT to USD 395 (prev. 385) and keeps an ‘Overweight’ rating; yet another firm highlighting “very strong” Q4 results, but the firm believes Alphabet's capex will be the story. Believes the doubling of capex Y/Y in 2026 "comes from a position of strength" & Gemini now at 750mln MAUs & showing significantly higher engagement per user
Piper Sandler raises PT to USD 395 (prev. 365) and keeps an ‘Overweight’ rating; notes Google reported an impressive Q4. Search/Cloud both accelerated again, although YouTube decelerated notably. Overall, strong results despite the capex pressure on FCF.
Citizens maintains PT of USD 385 and keeps an ‘Outperform’ rating; highlighted a strong Q. & how it is sharply increasing AI investment as it leverages its cash-generative core to compete more aggressively w/ META & OpenAI
Cantor Fitzgerald maintains PT of USD 370, ‘Overweight’ rating & Top Pick designation; Echoes familiar comments re. stellar Q4 report & adds despite FY26 CapEx guidance coming in far above exp., results reinforce confidence in Alphabet's AI-driven competitive position & support the view that incremental investment can generate healthy returns & sustain growth in coming quarters
KeyBanc raises PT to USD 370 (prev. 360) and keeps an ‘Overweight’ rating; reflects faster Cloud growth in sum-of-the-parts framework. Adds GOOGL is stepping up capex to support Google Services & Cloud growth. But concerns on the scale of investment will likely persist, but hard to argue w/ results, adding Search accelerated throughout ‘25, Cloud backlog grew ~55% Q/Q, & Gemini now has >750mln MAUs
Barclays raises PT to USD 360 (prev. 315) and keeps an ‘Overweight’ rating; says Cos. AI "story is cranking on full flex-mode" w/ 48% Cloud growth in the Q & a "massive jump" in backlog
UBS raises PT to USD 348 (prev. 345) and keeps a ‘Neutral’ rating; remarks Google's GenAI CapEx is driving faster-than-exp. return on invested capital, boosting ad rev. by USD 5-6bln & cloud rev. by USD 19-23bln for 2026-27. But, higher-than-exp. CapEx raises total costs, muting EPS impact to only 1% in ‘27, supporting a Neutral view given shares are near peak multiples.