Alphabet: BMO Raises Price Target To $2,700 Following Exceptional Earnings
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) reached record highs this week after its first-quarter results blew investors away, with the company reaching record profit and subsequently announcing a $50 billion share buyback program. The company announced first-quarter revenue of $55.43 billion and a gross margin of 56.4%. Net income came in at a record $17.93 billion, or a 32.4% net margin, and earnings per share hit $26.29. All these numbers beat Refinitiv’s analyst consensus estimates.
A number of analysts increased their price targets off the back of these stellar earnings, bringing their average 12-month price target up from $2,415 to $2,563 from a total of 44 analysts who cover the name.
Below are the most recent analyst changes as of the time writing:
- BOFA Global Research raises price objective to $2,755 from $2,440
- UBS raises target price to $2600 from $2300
- Oppenheimer raises target price to $2510 from $2350
- Monness Crespi Hardt raises target price to $3,000 from $2,500
- Stifel raises target price to $2700 from $2350
- Raymond James raises target price to $2,750 from $2,440
- Wedbush raises target price to $3,127 from $2,953
- BMO raises target price to $2,700 from $2,600
- Mizuho raises target price to $2800 from $2600
- Guggenheim raises target price to $2,850 from $2,400
- Needham raises target price to $2,700 from $2,500
- Susquehanna raises target price to $3,100 from $3,000
- MKM Partners raises target price to $2,500 from $2,200
- Credit Suisse raises target price to $2755 from $2500
- Atlantic Equities raises target price to $2800 from $2500
- Cowen and Company raises target price to $2700 from $2600
- Jefferies raises target price to $2,850 from $2,700
- Evercore ISI raises target price to $2825 from $2525
- Piper Sandler raises target price to $2,635 from $2,250
In BMO’s note, their analyst Daniel Salmon reiterates their outperform rating on top of increasing their 12-month price target to $2,700 from $2,600. He writes, “We remain Outperform as GOOGL’s broad-based business strength supports higher estimates and a higher target.” He is also expecting major announcements coming out of its various attendances, and believes that new product announcements are becoming of more importance to keeping the stock outperforming its peers, “we think shares are largely reflecting a recovery of the ad market, including key verticals like travel.”
Alphabet beat every single one of BMO’s estimates and subsequently they have raised their second quarter, 2021, and 2022 estimates up to reflect this.
Salmon lays out his growth expectations for Alphabet’s search, YouTube, and cloud segments. For the search & other segment, he believes that Google Maps, “should have positive “reopening” dynamics, and management emphasized the potential of combining Search, YouTube, and Maps, especially for omnichannel retailers.” While for YouTube, growth should be driven by new products being build into the service, as well as more people making a switch from paying for TV to CTV. For Alphabets cloud services, he expects that COVID-19 was a tailwind, which will help accelerate the use and adoption of cloud.
Information for this briefing was found via Sedar and Refinitiv. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
