Alphabet price target raised to $200 from $170 at Argus

Argus raised the firm’s price target on Alphabet to $200 from $170 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst cites the company’s Q1 operating income growth of 46% against 16% revenue growth as margins benefited from cost optimization efforts during the year, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Alphabet also remains an advertising juggernaut despite possible serious threats from competing generative AI platforms to its Search business and antitrust litigation/regulatory pressure, while its YouTube and Google Cloud businesses are “doing just fine” as the company spikes investment in its own competitive AI applications as well as compute infrastructure, Argus added.