Alphabet (GOOGL) Surges 11%—Is It the Mag-7 Stock to Watch Next Quarter?

Alphabet just ripped an 11% gain—while Wall Street scrambles to reposition, is GOOGL the Magnificent Seven play for Q3?

Tech’s quiet giant wakes up

No flashy AI keynotes or metaverse hype—just cold, hard market outperformance. The stock’s double-digit leap puts rivals on notice.

The Mag-7 reshuffle

With Tesla’s erratic moves and Apple’s innovation drought, fund managers might finally rotate into the ad-tech cash machine. (Cue the ‘this time it’s different’ analyst upgrades.)

Q3’s sleeper hit?

Cloud growth still accelerating, YouTube monetization firing on all cylinders—and that Android moat? Impenetrable. Meanwhile, ‘efficient frontier’ portfolio theorists rediscover profitability.

One cynical footnote: If GOOGL cracks $200 again, expect the same banks that downgraded it at $150 to issue ‘conviction buy’ notes with 300-page justification PDFs.

Could AI Drive Alphabet (GOOGL) Higher?

In addition, worries bout a rise in capital expenditures amongst big tech into AI appear to be dying down. Alphabet said capital expenditures will climb to $85 billion, higher than the previous $75 billion forecast. The investments in AI have proven fruitful, helping Alphabet (GOOGL) stock rise 6% YTD.

Furthermore, Alphabet (GOOGL) is still facing worries of consequences in its antitrust lawsuit for Google Search. The DOJ won the legal battle, and a ruling is expected to come in the next month. Many analysts were concerned that a punishment for Alphabet could run so high that the company could be forced to sell its Chrome web browser, which is a huge factor in the company’s profits.

Analysts are generally optimistic about Alphabet’s growth potential. Price targets range from $191 to $240, indicating potential upside from the current price of $201.42. Wedbush and Tigress Financial are optimistic with targets of $225 and $240, respectively, while Rosenblatt is more conservative with a $191 target. Roth MKM boasts the highest price target accuracy historically, suggesting confidence in their $220 target.