Alphabet Stock Forecast: Is GOOGL a Good Buy in 2025?

Alphabet’s (GOOGL) stock price hit an all-time high closing price of $190.92 in July this year, but life has been rather more challenging since those heady days.

Shares in the tech giant have slipped due to concerns about looming antitrust cases and the amounts being spent on artificial intelligence.

Although the stock price stood at $169.74 as the market closed on November 5, 2024, the analysts’ consensus view is that it will eventually start rising again.

However, is now the time to buy GOOGL stock, or should prospective investors sit tight? What are the latest Alphabet stock predictions of industry experts?

In our Alphabet stock forecast, we consider the key performance drivers for the stock and what to watch out for in 2025 and beyond.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Summary of the Latest Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Predictions
3. Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Analysis
4. Strong Third Quarter Results
5. Alphabet News: Key Drivers to Consider
6. Alphabet Stock Predictions: Analyst Views
7. Latest Alphabet Stock Forecasts for 2024, 2025 & 2030
8. The Bottom Line: Should I Invest in Alphabet?
9. FAQs
10. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Summary of the Latest Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Predictions
3. Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Analysis
Show Full Guide
4. Strong Third Quarter Results
5. Alphabet News: Key Drivers to Consider
6. Alphabet Stock Predictions: Analyst Views
7. Latest Alphabet Stock Forecasts for 2024, 2025 & 2030
8. The Bottom Line: Should I Invest in Alphabet?
9. FAQs
10. References

Summary of the Latest Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Predictions

Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Analysis

It has certainly been an interesting year for Alphabet, the world’s fifth-largest company with a market capitalization of just over $2 billion.

Let’s take the positives first. The company has reported strong quarterly results and announced some exciting developments.

However, on the downside, there have been looming antitrust issues, lawsuits to tackle, and the financial impact of reducing staff numbers.

When you add in analysts’ rumbling concerns over the amounts being spent on artificial intelligence, there’s certainly plenty for potential investors to consider.

This melting pot of positives and negatives has obviously had an impact on both the Google stock price and the Alphabet stock outlook of analysts.

Shares have risen almost 32% over the past year and around 22% between the start of January to their $169.74 level as the market closed on November 5, 2024.

However, deeper analysis shows that the performance has been rather more erratic than the headline numbers portray.

For example, it soared 47% from $130 in March to an all-time high closing price of $191.18 in July, but it plummeted more than 20% by early September.

Here, we look in more detail at what’s been behind the GOOGL stock price over the last 12 months, which has seen it at lows of $127.90 and highs of more than $190.

Strong Third Quarter Results

In late October 2024, Alphabet announced third quarter revenues had increased 15% year-over-year to $88.3 billion due to strong momentum across the business.

Google Services revenues rose 13% to $76.5 billion, led by a strong performance across Google Search, Google subscriptions, platforms, devices, and YouTube ads.

Meanwhile, Google Cloud revenues were up 35% to $11.4 billion, with accelerated growth in Google Cloud Platform across AI Infrastructure, Generative AI Solutions, and core GCP products.

In a statement, Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive, noted that margins had been helped by “strong revenue growth” in the quarter and ongoing efforts to improve efficiency.

He said: “The momentum across the company is extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools.”

He also highlighted how its new AI features were expanding what people can search for and how they search for it.

“In Cloud, our AI solutions are helping drive deeper product adoption with existing customers, attract new customers and win larger deals,” he added. ” And YouTube’s total ads and subscription revenues surpassed $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time.”

Source: Alphabet

Alphabet News: Key Drivers to Consider

So, what do the coming years have in store for Alphabet? The next part of our Google stock forecast looks at the positive and negative factors that may influence returns.

Commitment to AI

In an earnings call with analysts following the third quarter results, Sundar Pichai insisted Alphabet’s “long-term focus and investment in AI” was driving success for the company.

“We are uniquely positioned to lead in the era of AI because of our differentiated full stack approach to AI innovation, and we’re now seeing this operate at scale,” he said.

Pichai also explained it contained three components:

• A robust AI infrastructure that includes data centers, chips, and a global fiber network.
• World-class research teams building the models.
• Global reach through products that reach billions of customers around the world.

“We continue to invest in state-of-the-art infrastructure to support our AI efforts, from the US to Thailand to Uruguay,” he added.

Pichai also pointed out that the company was internally using AI to improve its coding process, which is also boosting productivity and efficiency.

“Today, more than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI, then reviewed and accepted by engineers,” he said. “This helps our engineers do more and move faster.”

Previously, a document published by Kent Walker, Google and Alphabet’s president of global affairs, outlined the company’s commitment to responsible AI development.

“It’s not enough for AI to make better services — we also want to use it to make those services safe and secure,” he wrote. “We design our products to be secure-by-default — and our approach to AI is no different.”

Walker noted that the business was proud to work with other leading AI companies and committed to advancing responsible development practices.

“Addressing AI-generated content will require industry-wide solutions, and we look forward to working with others, including the Partnership on AI’s synthetic media working group,” he added.

First Ever Dividend and Stock Repurchases

Previously, Alphabet had announced the initiation of a cash dividend program as part of its first-quarter results announcement.

It stated: “The company intends to pay quarterly cash dividends in the future, subject to review and approval by the company’s Board of Directors in its sole discretion.”

In addition, Alphabet’s Board of Directors has authorized the company to repurchase up to an additional $70 billion of its Class A and Class C shares.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said at the time that Alphabet joining the ranks of tech companies paying dividends is a sign of the times.

He said:

“Big tech firms have enjoyed stellar growth over the past decade and while most remain highly innovative, their cash flows have become so strong that there’s oodles of money left over post-reinvestment in the business to reward shareholders.”

Antitrust Battle

However, when we’re looking at GOOGL news, not everything on the horizon is as exciting as its AI developments and the first-ever dividend.

The company has been facing antitrust cases in the United States, an investigation by the European Commission, and other legal issues.

For example, in early October 2024, it was reported that the US government was seeking the break-up of Google to end its monopoly in search.

The Financial Times claimed this was a potential remedy set out by the Department of Justice after a judge ruled in August that Google had violated US antitrust law.

Malik Ahmed Khan, an equity analyst at Morningstar, believes the case against Google Search is the most material of the three faced by Alphabet.

“We are expecting a US Department of Justice recommendation to the courts toward the end of 2024, which will likely include, among other remedies, the divestiture of Android and Chrome,” he wrote.

However, Khan believes a break-up of the company is unlikely. He said:

“Our view, which is informed by a study of various legal opinions on the issue, is that the burden of proof required for a break-up is significantly higher than that required for other remedies.”

He pointed out that this meant the DOJ needed to make an argument that no remedy short of a break-up would be enough to “loosen Google Search’s dominance.”

European Investigation

In late March 2024, the European Commission opened a non-compliance investigation against Alphabet, Apple, and Meta under the Digital Markets Act.

It stated:

“The Commission has opened proceedings against Alphabet, to determine whether Alphabet’s display of Google search results may lead to self-preferencing in relation to Google’s vertical search services (e.g., Google Shopping; Google Flights; Google Hotels) over similar rival services.”

The Commission intends to conclude these proceedings within 12 months. In case of an infringement, it can impose fines of up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide turnover.

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president in charge of competition policy at the Commission, added:

“We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA. We will now investigate the companies’ compliance with the DMA, to ensure open and contestable digital markets in Europe.”

Other Legal Issues

Separately, the company has been battling other legal disputes.

In late December 2023, it was reported that Google had agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of people who thought they were browsing privately. The claim had been for at least $5 billion.

Also in December, it was reported that Google will pay $700m to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of US stakes accusing it of quashing competition to its Play Store on Android devices.

Alphabet Stock Predictions: Analyst Views

Next, we look at the ??Alphabet stock predictions of the experts.

Will the Alphabet future stock price be higher or lower than it is today, and what are the Alphabet stock expectations of leading stock market analysts?

Morningstar’s Malik Ahmed Khan has increased his fair value estimate from $209 to $220 per share, largely due to its strong quarterly performance.

In his Google stock forecast of October 30, 2024, he pointed out that the shares were “moderately undervalued” despite this year’s increases.

“Alphabet’s third quarter sales expanded 15% year-over-year to $88 billion,” he wrote. “Strong advertising and cloud revenue growth spearheaded the firm’s top line.”

Khan believes the performance is particularly significant given the concerns raised about issues surrounding the business. He explained:

“A growing chorus of voices has sounded alarms about Alphabet’s search business as a mixture of antitrust concerns and the perception of Alphabet as an AI laggard has made investors pessimistic about future growth.”

He pointed out that “contrary to the perception” that Google Search was being disrupted, search advertising sales grew 12%.

“From a generative AI perspective, we like tools YouTube is investing in to enable creators on YouTube to create videos, streamline editing, come up with suggestions on titles, and more,” he added. “From a monetization perspective, more user engagement is positively correlated with advertising sales on digital platforms, allowing YouTube to grow its advertising sales over time.”

However, Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, believes the most recent results have reignited enthusiasm for the stock after a few months in the doldrums.

However, he pointed out that the latest results also contained some less positive elements that investors needed to acknowledge.

“Search advertising growth slowed from 14% to 12% which may add to concerns this foundational part of the business is under threat from AI chatbots,” he said. “Alphabet will hope innovations like ‘circle to search,’ which allows people to search for a product by circling an image in a photo, will keep search relevant in the year to come.”

Mould also addressed the amount of financial resources that were being directed towards artificial intelligence.

“The company is also spending huge sums on AI with capital expenditure expected to see further growth in 2025, having already come in consistently ahead of 2023 levels so far this year,” he said. “Eventually the market will want to see evidence this spending is delivering a meaningful return.”

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, believes that artificial intelligence presents both vast opportunities but also deep challenges for Alphabet.

She told Techopedia:

“On the one hand, generative AI risks eating into the strength of Alphabet’s search capabilities. On the other, demand for Google Cloud services is expected to see sustained growth as companies upgrade storage to process demands of data-intensive AI workloads.”

Alphabet’s latest large language AI model, Gemini, has been praised for its more intuitive, detailed, and conversational tone capabilities compared to ChatGPT.

However, Streeter believes it’s unclear how all of this will play out over the longer term.

She added:

“There are likely to be some steep regulatory hurdles to cross as competition watchdogs catch up with these fast-moving innovations which will be another risk for investors to keep an eye on.”

Latest Alphabet Stock Forecasts for 2024, 2025 & 2030

So, is Alphabet a buy, hold, or sell?

The company is rated as a ‘Moderate Buy,’ according to the Google stock forecast 2025 of 42 Wall Street analysts, compiled by MarketBeat as of November 6, 2024.

Thirty five have ‘Buy’ recommendations in place, while the remaining seven view it as a ‘Hold.’ No one has it down as a ‘Sell.’

• The overall consensus Alphabet stock forecast 2025 is for the stock to rise 21.08% to $205.51 over the coming year, although opinions vary enormously.
• The most optimistic believe the GOOGL stock price could reach $240.
• Meanwhile, some analysts warn that it could actually fall to $165.

The following table shows the 10 latest analysts’ Alphabet stock predictions and their GOOGL price targets.

Source: MarketBeat, as of November 6, 2024

According to the algorithmic predictions of Wallet Investor, the stock price could hit $186 over the coming year.

But what about an Alphabet stock long-term forecast? The site’s five-year forecast to August 2029 has the price at $244.95.

Unfortunately, most analysts are reluctant to publish a Google stock forecast 2030 as there are so many variables over that time horizon.

Meanwhile, the Alphabet stock forecast 2030 of Coincodex put the stock as high as $334.74 over the next six years.

However, it’s important to note that analysts’ and algorithm-based projections might prove to be wrong.

The Bottom Line: Should I Invest in Alphabet?

Alphabet investors can be forgiven for celebrating what has been a good year in terms of both the share price and the company’s first-ever cash dividend.

But the big question is, what’s likely to happen to the GOOGL stock price over the coming months and years? Should investors expect further increases?

The good news is that the sales numbers are increasing, with strong advertising and cloud revenue growth, which is a major part of the company’s recent third quarter results.

However, there are looming issues.

The legal battles are refusing to go away and there is a suggestion that the US government believes a break-up of Google may be the only way to change its dominance within search.

Analysts are expecting more clarity on this issue before the end of 2024.

FAQs