Alphabet Stock Can Soar 24%, JPMorgan Says. Why Google Can Defy AI Fears. -- Barrons.com

By George Glover

Big Tech earnings are always a blockbuster event for the market -- but there will be even more than usual riding on them this quarter as the artificial-intelligence trade falters.

The likes of Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Google owner Alphabet could either make or break stocks' current bull run when they report later this month, as investors worry about a flare-up in inflation and AI debt.

Alphabet could be most crucial, considering it's the biggest of the three -- with a $4.23 trillion market capitalization making it the world's third largest company by total valuation as of Wednesday's close.

J.P. Morgan is bullish. Analyst Doug Anmuth raised his price target for Alphabet shares to $425 from $420 early Thursday, citing the rapid growth of Google Cloud.

The new price target implies the stock can rally about 24% from its current level.

Anmuth now expects revenue by Google Cloud to grow 100% for the third quarter, up from an 88% target recently. That's thanks to sky-high demand for Google's tensor processing units, custom-built chips used to power data centers and run AI large-language models.

"The primary driver of the increase is greater TPU sale inclusion, & we could still be conservative," Anmuth said, as he raised his forecast for Alphabet's 2027 earnings by 3% to $14.05 a share.

Alphabet is set to report its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 28.

Anmuth also hiked his growth estimate for Amazon, citing the online retailer's scaling of its partnership with OpenAI. He tweaked his model for Meta to reflect $10 billion in expenses tied to its proposed legal settlement with 52 state attorneys general.

All three stocks were struggling on Thursday, though, as the tech rout worsened. Alphabet slid 0.2%, Amazon fell 1.5%, and Meta declined 0.8%.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 15, 2026 09:48 ET (13:48 GMT)