The last few weeks haven’t been pleasant for tech giant Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as its Google arm faces rising threats to its dominance and some strange issues with its new products. In fact, this prompted a pep rally from Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan that may or may not prove all that effective. At any rate, shareholders liked the messages Raghavan put out and sent shares up over 1.5% in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
Raghavan called in an all-hands meeting, where he issued a demand that’s familiar to workers all over the world: move faster. Raghavan started out with obvious generalities, declaring that things were “…not like they were 15 – 20 years ago” and that there were a wide range of changes hitting search. There were more competitors getting involved, users were changing their behaviors, and even regulators were getting a lot more involved than they ever did.
Then, Raghavan revealed that the time to complete projects was also getting shortened in a bid to produce what he described as “faster-twitch, shorter wavelength execution.” How, exactly, that gets done, particularly with fewer resources in light of recent cost-cutting, is the stuff that “Dilbert” strips thrived on.
Google’s Ad Search Business Is About to Be Fundamentally Shaken
Meanwhile, Google is frantically working to bring out developments elsewhere. For instance, its ad search business is about to be fundamentally shaken up by its new “two-hop proxy” system designed to improve privacy for users. However, it will pose potential problems for advertisers, like losing a lot of accuracy in geographically-targeted ads.
Google is also firing more workers who were caught engaging in protests regarding its recent deal to supply the Israeli government with technology. Another 20 workers were shown the door in the wake of those protests, on top of the 28 previously fired.
Is Google a Safe Long-Term Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 30 Buys and seven Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 49.79% rally in its share price over the past year, the average GOOGL price target of $167.51 per share implies 5.63% upside potential.
Is It Wise to Allocate $1,000 Toward GOOGL Stock Right Now?
Before you hurry to invest in GOOGL, think about the following:
TipRanks’ team has built the Top Stocks Portfolio for investors, and Alphabet is not included. Our portfolio highlights companies that have been hand-picked for their potential to deliver significant gains in the years ahead.
See Top Stocks Model Portfolio >>
