10 AI Stocks Investors Are Watching Closely

4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 227

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Investors Are Watching Closely. On July 16, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Deepak Mathivanan raised the price target on the stock to $196.00 (from $171.00) while maintaining a “Neutral” rating.

The firm is optimistic about Google’s competitive position in artificial intelligence but remains neutral until it has gained clarity over Antitrust challenges.

“GOOGL’s 2Q25E results should exceed street estimates on top-line and EPS, driven by core search and YT businesses. Cloud revenue growth is likely to come near mid-20% y/y driven by growing contribution from AI inference demand. We believe GOOGL could deliver EBIT margin leverage from operational efficiencies in 2Q25E despite step-up in D&A, infra opex, and compensation costs. On capex, the company appears to be making steady progress on DC build-out plans, but given the accelerated buildout across the industry, we wouldn’t be surprised if GOOGL’s FY26E point guidance of $75B trends higher on this print. Overall, street FY26E EPS estimates should see positive revisions on 2Q25E results. However, we struggle to see shares meaningfully outperform ahead of the key antitrust ruling in August. While we have grown increasingly bullish on GOOGL’s competitive position in AI over the past few months, we remain Neutral rated until we gain clarity on Antitrust challenges. In terms of estimates, we have revised our FY26E EPS estimates higher by 3% and our revised PT of $196 is based on 18x FY26E EPS (vs. $171 and 16x previously).”

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company wholly owning the internet giant Google, amongst other businesses.