Alphabet is still a buy despite uncertain macro ahead, analysts say after earnings

Published Wed, Jul 27 20226:53 AM EDTUpdated Wed, Jul 27 20229:00 AM EDT

Alphabet is still a buy, even as uncertainty mounts for the tech giant amid a tough macro environment, according to analysts. Google's parent company on Tuesday delivered quarterly earnings and revenue that missed analyst expectations. However, the company's report showed strong year-over-year search revenue growth, helping appease investors and analysts. The stock traded more than 3% higher in the premarket. Search revenue came in at $40.69 billion, up from $35.85 billion the previous year. Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler said travel and retail queries boosted the results. "The bottom-of-the-funnel and last-click-attribution that Search thrives on is showing its resilience in the current environment, and should allow Google to continue to gain share," said Barclays' Ross Sandler, who has an overweight rating and a $150 price target on the tech company. Evercore ISI's Mark Mahaney said the results showed Alphabet is "reasonably recession resilient." "GOOGL's fundamentals are holding up better than the market (and we) thought they would," wrote Mahaney, who has an outperform rating on the stock. "Investments and innovations that the company has made around its core Ads business are paying off. ... And valuation is highly attractive – 16X P/E (on GAAP EPS) – for a business likely to generate close to 20%ish EPS growth, mostly powered by revenue growth. The FCF Yield here is approx. 6%. So what you have here is a very high quality company that is off almost 30% YTD." RBC Capital Markets' Brad Erickson echoed Mahaney, saying the report "further cements GOOGL's place as the highest quality name in a very challenged space." Some analysts, though, weren't so upbeat about Alphabet's quarter. UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley wrote that "'uncertainty' overhangs remain" for the tech giant as it cited a spending pullback from some advertisers. "Despite better-than-expected 2Q results, there remains considerable uncertainty and GOOG provided limited help in understanding exactly what is going on under the hood," Walmsley said. "Bears will focus on risk of deterioration in top line trends, slightly weaker op. margins in Google Services, plans to continue hiring and investing, higher y/y capex in 2022, slower growth and weaker margins in Cloud, and limited disclosures on business trends." Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley's Brian Nowak said that while Alphabet's second-quarter results were strong, "macro uncertainty remains high." "On the commentary front, 1) GOOGL spoke to uncertainty in the global economic environment (issues differing by sector and geography) and difficult Y/Y comps. In addition, 2) while travel search spend was strong in 2Q, we think its notable that GOOGL spoke to recent news and challenges facing the travel sector,." Nowak said. Here's where the biggest Wall Street firms stand on Alphabet after the company's latest quarterly report: Raymond James: Maintain Outperform, PT to $143 from $159 Mizuho: Maintain Buy, PT $150 Loop Capital: Buy KeyBanc Capital Markets: Maintain Overweight, PT $125 JMP: Maintain Market Outperform, $160 PT Jefferies: Buy, PT to $130 from $155 UBS: Buy, PT to $132 from $133 Piper Sandler: Reiterate Overweight, PT $135 Barclays: Maintained Overweight, PT $150 Wolfe Research: Reiterate Outperform, PT $130 Stifel: Buy, PT $145 RBC Capital Markets: Outperform, PT $135 Morgan Stanley: Remain Overweight, PT to $145 from $140 JPMorgan: Overweight, PT $140 Goldman Sachs: Buy, PT $150 Evercore ISI: Outperform, PT to $140 from $155.50 Credit Suisse: Outperform: PT to $140 from $143 William Blair: Outperform Canaccord Genuity: Buy, PT $165 Bank of America: Buy, PT to $125 from $132 AllianceBernstein: Outperform, PT to $140 from $145 Baird: PT to $140 from $150 Atlantic Equities: Overweight, PT $125 Cowen: Outperform, PT $150 Needham: Buy, PT $160 Citi: Buy, PT to $140 from $145 Wells Fargo: Overweight, PT to $160 from $170 —CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.