5 Strong Buy S&P 500 Stocks to Invest In

Page 5 of 5

1. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

On May 4, 2026, Citizens analyst Andrew Boone raised the price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to $515 from $385 and maintained an Outperform rating. Andrew Boone cited accelerating growth across Search, Cloud, YouTube, and subscriptions, adding that vertical integration and efforts to commercialize TPUs position the company to benefit from AI demand by expanding its addressable market and leveraging cost and compute advantages.

On April 30, 2026, Roth Capital raised its price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to $435 from $395 with a Buy rating, citing a “strong” Q1 beat and broad-based momentum tied to AI adoption.

RBC Capital also increased its price target to $425 from $400 and maintained an Outperform rating, describing results as “rock solid,” with 19% Search growth and 63% growth in Google Cloud, where backlog nearly doubled sequentially to $460B.

On April 29, 2026, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reported Q1 EPS of $5.11 versus $2.67 consensus and revenue of $109.9B compared to $107.03B expected. CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is off to a “terrific start,” highlighting “19% revenue growth” in Search, “63%” growth in Cloud, and paid subscriptions reaching 350 million, with AI investments driving usage and platform activity.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) operates Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets across global markets.

While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 10 AI Stocks with Potential to Rise 1000 Percent and 10 Best AI Pick-and-Shovel Stocks to Buy

Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.

Page 5 of 5