The GOOGL price target got a lift as Pivotal Research raised it to $470, up from $420, and also kept its Buy rating on the stock. The move followed a strong Alphabet Q1 earnings beat, with revenue coming in at $109.9 billion, up 22% year-over-year, well above the $107.2 billion analyst consensus. Right now, the GOOGL analyst rating from 72 analysts sits at strong buy, and the Alphabet stock forecast is getting more bullish. The GOOGL stock bullish case, at the time of writing, keeps getting harder to argue with.
Also Read: Google Stock Jumps on Earnings But UBS, Morgan Stanley See Bear Case
Alphabet Stock Forecast Strengthens on Q1 Earnings and Bullish Sentiment
What Drove Pivotal’s Decision
Pivotal Research pointed to several Q1 numbers that came in ahead of its own estimates. Search revenue growth accelerated for the fifth consecutive quarter, hitting 19% year-over-year, which also beat Pivotal’s estimate of 15%. Cloud revenue grew 63%, topping the firm’s 48% estimate, marking the fourth straight quarter of acceleration there. Subscriptions and Devices revenue also grew 19% in the period. On the back of those numbers, Pivotal revised its forecasts for both search and cloud revenue upward, and also bumped its capital expenditure estimates, adding an extra $10 billion for 2026 tied to the Intersect acquisition, with higher projections for 2027 and beyond as well.
Source: TradingView
CEO Sundar Pichai also weighed in on where the company stands right now on cloud and AI demand.
“2026 is off to a terrific start. Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business.”
Pichai also said on the Q1 2026 earnings call:
“We are compute constrained in the near term. Our cloud revenue would have been higher if we were able to meet the demand.”
Where the Broader Analyst Community Stands
Based on ratings from 72 analysts over the past three months, the overall GOOGL analyst rating comes out at strong buy. Of those 72, 56 gave it a strong buy, 7 a buy, and 9 a hold, with zero sell ratings in the mix. The consensus GOOGL price target sits at $416.39, with a high estimate of $515 and a low of $311. Pivotal also joins a broader wave of upgrades following the Alphabet Q1 earnings beat, with TD Cowen raising its to $450 and Raymond James to $425.
What the Numbers Mean for the GOOGL Stock Bullish Case
Alphabet’s cloud backlog nearly doubled to over $460 billion in Q1, and CFO Anat Ashkenazi also said the company expects 2027 capital expenditure to significantly increase compared to 2026. The Alphabet stock forecast for next quarter puts revenue at around $116.19 billion. At the time of writing, the GOOGL price target range across analysts runs from $311 on the low end to $515 at the top, and with the GOOGL stock bullish momentum coming off a quarter like this one, the updated GOOGL price target from Pivotal at $470 looks like it may not be the last revision this year.