Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald has reiterated a Hold-equivalent neutral rating and a $171 price target on Alphabet (GOOGL) stock despite acknowledging that the shares are trading at an attractive valuation.
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The price target placed on GOOGL stock by Cantor Fitzgerald is close to where the shares are currently trading. With a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) under 20x, Alphabet’s stock has the cheapest valuation among the mega-cap technology companies, said the analysts.
They also commented positively about Alphabet’s recent I/O developer conference, writing that “In the past week, GOOGL hosted its annual I/O and Marketing Live conferences, where the company rolled out a long list of new products in its family of apps… Shares outperformed the Nasdaq by 4-pts during the past week.”
Questions Remain
Despite the strong showing and robust product announcements at the developer conference, Cantor Fitzgerald says it will likely take time for Alphabet to bring many of its new offerings to market, particularly in the critical area of artificial intelligence (AI).
While sentiment towards GOOGL stock turned incrementally positive following the I/O event, there are lingering questions about Alphabet’s competitiveness in the AI space, as well as around its capital expenditures and the future of the company’s online search business, which has long been its main revenue driver. As such, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its neutral rating on the stock.
Is GOOGL Stock a Buy?
The stock of Alphabet has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 37 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 28 Buy and nine Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average GOOGL price target of $197.69 implies 14.46% upside from current levels.
