The momentum in Alphabet shares is set to continue in 2026, according to Citizens. Analyst Andrew Boone, who has a buy rating on the Google parent, raised his price target on the stock to $385 from $340. The new forecast implies upside of 22.7% from Tuesday's close. Boone's change comes as Alphabet get set to close a strong 2025. The stock is up 65.8% for the year, making it the best-performing member of the "Magnificent Seven." GOOGL YTD mountain GOOGL year to date That gain wasn't easy to come by, however. Shares at one point were down 23% for the year before staging a 117% rebound from those lows. Improvements to its Gemini artificial intelligence platform led the way higher for the stock. Heading into 2026, search and other drivers will keep driving shares higher, according to Boone. "We come away believing Google can further accelerate search revenue in 4Q25, which we view as the key question near term, while Gemini, Cloud, Waymo, and TPUs are all medium-term catalysts that should help to inflect results in 2026 and 2027," he wrote to clients late Monday. "On search specifically, we believe query growth is accelerating as AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini drive more search engagement, while Smart Bidding Exploration, which allows Google to connect advertisers to intent rather than keywords, is expanding Google's ad load as it can increase the percentage of queries that are connected to ads," he added. Most analysts are bullish on Alphabet heading into the new year. LSEG data shows that 53 of 62 covering it rate the stock a buy or strong buy.
