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Raymond James believes that Alphabet’s artificial intelligence investments support further upside from here. The firm upgraded the “Magnificent Seven” titan to a strong buy rating from outperform. Analyst Josh Beck also hiked his price target to $400 from $350, which signals upside of 22% from Wednesday’s close. Shares of Alphabet have rallied 64% in the past 12 months. GOOG 1Y mountain GOOG 1Y chart A reassessment of Google Search and Cloud has let to a material upward revision in his 2026 and 2027 estimates for the company, Beck wrote. He noted that Raymond James’ estimate now sits at the Street high for 2027 revenue. “We believe GOOG is likely entering a cycle of improving AI Stack narrative and upward revisions that could create one of the highest quality top-line AI acceleration stories in the public universe,” the analyst said. “Our baseline assumption for 2026 is that the AI Stack narrative and fundamental revisions will be the primary mega-cap Internet performance drivers as opposed to the mean reversion trade (i.e., buying depressed/ selling elevated multiples).” Beck’s $400 price target is based on a 2027 price-to-earnings multiple of 29, which sits above Alphabet’s historical averages. The stock currently trades at around 28.8 times forward earnings, FactSet data shows. That’s around a 2021 peak of 31. This premium reflects a broad-based revenue acceleration across the company’s AI investments, which are now “shifting to high gear.” Analysts in general like the stock. LSEG data shows that 51 of 60
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