Goldman, JPMorgan, Barclays, bullish on Alphabet's Search, YouTube, and Cloud businesses

Alphabet’s latest quarterly report landed with real force, and Wall Street immediately moved to make its position clear: it is sticking with Sundar Pichai.

The company reported $3.10 per share in adjusted earnings and $102.35 billion in revenue for the third quarter, surpassing the widely expected $2.33 per share and $99.89 billion revenue estimates.

The reaction came fast, with Alphabet shares rising more than 8% in premarket trading. What stood out was not only the beat itself, but where the growth came from.

Alphabet pointed to demand tied to artificial intelligence as a key driver behind its cloud performance. The company’s cloud segment reported $15.15 billion, up 35% year-over-year, making it one of the strongest growth lines across the report.

Alphabet also raised its outlook on capital spending tied to AI infrastructure. Even with that higher spending, the broader takeaway across Wall Street was that the company has momentum in its core and emerging lines at the same time investors are watching AI competition tighten.

Analysts raise price targets after the report

Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan raised his firm’s price target on Alphabet to $330, up from $288, describing about 20% upside from the prior close.

Eric said Alphabet had worked through a year of worrying themes surrounding AI and added, “We continue to see multiple fronts where Alphabet has climbed a steep wall of worry in the past 12 months around the AI theme and don’t see any reasons to suspect a pause or step back.”

Eric also said the company’s management highlighted real uptake across Search, AI Overviews, Gemini, and AI Mode formats. He pointed to Alphabet’s user base, pace of product development, and technical infrastructure as factors in how the company will navigate changes to the search market.

At Barclays, analyst Ross Sandler raised his price target from $250 to $315, which suggests roughly 15% upside. Ross said Alphabet saw acceleration across all major revenue categories during the quarter and noted that AI support is visible across the company’s businesses.

Ross added that if Alphabet is able to manage growing AI competition in search by 2026, the stock could keep moving higher.

Morgan Stanley also lifted its target to $330, calling the stock positioned to outperform. The note identified Gemini 3 and Llama developments as the next catalysts that investors will be watching.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post pushed his price target to $335 from $280, a shift of 22% over Alphabet’s prior closing price.

Justin said, “We believe results will reinforce the view that: 1) Google is well positioned for AI with a leading LLM, proprietary TPU technology and massive user base, and 2) there can be multiple beneficiaries from growing AI capabilities.”

Justin also mentioned early-stage investments in Waymo and quantum computing as holding longer-term value potential that the market has not priced in. He noted that with shares at about $294 after earnings, Alphabet traded at 24x estimated 2027 earnings, compared to the S&P at 22x.

The next event he pointed to was the Gemini 3.0 launch this quarter. He also mentioned a possible risk point: OpenAI’s advertisement launch expected in 2026.

Some analysts keep caution in place while still raising expectations

JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth lifted his target from $300 to $340, which reflects about 24% upside. Doug said that Alphabet’s third-quarter numbers and commentary around AI search could shift how investors view the transition from traditional search to AI-supported search.

Doug said, “Overall, the AI search transition has been viewed as the greatest risk to Google, but additional signs that AI search is more opportunity than threat will continue to flip the narrative.” Doug also said the firm continues to list Alphabet as a top investment idea, second only to Amazon.

UBS analyst Stephen Ju raised his target to $306 from $255, which reflects about 11% upside, but kept a neutral rating. Stephen said Alphabet reported stronger-than-expected results across Search, YouTube, and Cloud.

Stephen highlighted the disclosure of a $155 billion backlog in the cloud business and estimated 50–55% of that backlog could convert into revenue within the next two years.

Stephen acknowledged growth driven by GenAI, while also noting that competition from ChatGPT’s upcoming browser capabilities and merchant tools may remain an issue for the next year.

Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black raised his target to $340, saying Alphabet’s situation going into the quarter was not simple because the stock had already risen 43% since the second quarter results.

Benjamin said the company posted what he called “virtually no hair on the print,” adding that consolidated revenue reached $102.3 billion, up 16% year-over-year and 15% on a foreign exchange-neutral basis, beating expectations by around 2.5%.

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