Analysts remain confident on Alphabet, following marketing event

Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:) Google held its Google Marketing Live 2023 on Tuesday with an AI focus. The company reportedly announced more than 20 new ad products at the event.

Here’s how analysts reacted:

Morgan Stanley analysts, who have an Overweight rating and $140 price target on Alphabet, said the event “showcased GOOGL’s leading AI-driven ad product suite.

“We see these tools reducing advertiser friction, improving creative, driving conversion higher, and leading to durable multi-year ad growth,” wrote the analysts.

BofA analysts reiterated a Buy rating and a $128 price target on the stock, stating that the conference keynote was headlined by AI, with a focus on several Generative AI advancements for advertisers.

“Our top takeaway is that Google is at the forefront of integrating AI into its ad ecosystem, with opportunities for improving ad relevance, performance (click rates), and monetization,” wrote the analysts. “The presentation also featured conversational AI, AI-powered campaigns in Performance Max, and integration of AI capabilities into search. We continue to see AI-based ad technology advantages vs peers, supporting our view that the proliferation of AI will be a net positive for Google.”

JMP Securities kept a $132 price target on Market Outperform-rated GOOGL.

JMP analysts said they came away believing that “the implementation of AI is improving Google’s return on ad spend as it personalizes consumer experiences, reduces friction for advertisers, and better allocates campaign dollars.”

“To be clear, we continue to have concerns that new AI models will shift search share to other platforms as the role of text boxes change,” the analysts explained. “However, Alphabet is well-positioned with Cloud, YouTube, and 14 other products that serve 500M+ people, positioning Alphabet well across nearly all digital tailwinds while we continue to view it as a leader in AI.”