Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) posted its year-end earnings on Tuesday and the analyst community has decided to trim some expectations. The stock ended up closing down 7.3% at $171.33 after the pre-earnings close of $206.38. Alphabet was up 9% YTD coming into earnings, and strategic investors were riding its wave as other technology stocks were taking a breather after such strong 2024 performance.
Two major factors with slight misses were both from AI — driving capital spending higher than expected in 2025 and also with AI’s disruptive nature competing against Google’s core search business.
There were some concerns as well about revenues and EBITDA numbers, but by and large most analysts on Wall Street are still calling for growth ahead despite some regulatory and antitrust issues facing the company.
Oggonomics always reminds its readers that no single analyst call should be the sole factor for determining whether to buy or sell a stock. When you see a broad trend that may be another issue, although analysts can still fall into “group-think” and get their views wrong when trends are changing.
BofA Securities’ Justin Post reiterated his Buy rating and $225 price objective, but noted that the miss on cloud sales and capital spending guidance weighed on the stock. Still, higher search revenues are offsetting some of the higher costs. And BofA keeps 2026 earnings unchanged and remains constructive on growing AI benefits for its advertising and cloud business.
Jefferies reiterated its Buy rating and $235 price targets, while Needham & Co. reiterated its Buy rating and $225 price target after earnings. RBC reiterated its Outperform rating and its $235 price target. Goldman Sachs reiterated its Buy rating and $220 price target.
Guggenheim was one of the firms that raised its target, up to $220 from $215 while reiterating its Buy rating.
What about the price targets being trimmed lower elsewhere…
Cantor Fitzgerald maintained its Neutral rating and trimmed its target down to $200 from $210.
Citigroup’s Ronald Josey maintained a Buy rating but trimmed his target to $229 from $232 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. His report was mostly positive and noted to “take advantage of any dislocations” in shares but it still involved a slight cut on expectations ahead.
D.A. Davidson maintained its Neutral rating and $200 target, noting the disappointing results highlighted a miss on top-line expectations and decelerating cloud growth.
JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating but trimmed the price target to $220 from $232. The reduction noted that there was an overall Alphabet revenue and operating income below expectations along with much higher capital spending in 2025 – being mostly offset by AI innovations and solid advertising growth.
KeyBanc Capital Markets maintained its Overweight rating while cutting its target to $220 from $225.
Morgan Stanley maintained its Overweight rating but still trimmed its price target to $210 from $215.
Piper Sandler maintained its Overweight rating but trimmed its target down to $208 from $210 in a slight adjustment. Part of the cut was the 2025 estimate of capex jumping to $75 billion(ish) when estimates were closer to $58 billion.
Roth MKM maintained its Buy rating and $220 price target.
CFRA (S&P) reiterated its Buy rating and $220 price target, but noted concerns have concerns surrounding its search business given AI’s disruptive trends and rising competitive pressures. Another concern is regulatory/antitrust pressures.
Wells Fargo reiterated its Hold rating and $184 price target.
Wolfe Research reiterated its Outperform rating but trimmed its target down to $220 from $230.
