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Shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) climbed Friday, leading shares of several other adtech and AI stocks higher, after showing signs of success with AI features.
Alphabet’s Class A shares jumped over 4% to just above $166, before paring gains in recent trading. Shares of several other tech companies in digital advertising that use AI tools also gained, including Meta Platforms (META), Pinterest (PINS), Snap (SNAP), and AppLovin (APP). (Read Investopedia’s live coverage of today’s market action here.)
The Google parent reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings Thursday, with CEO Sundar Pichai telling investors Google Search growth was driven by “engagement we’re seeing with features like AI Overviews, which now has 1.5 billion users per month” in just under a year since its launch.
Several analysts, including those at Citi and Wedbush, boosted their price targets for the stock in the wake of the results, pointing to its AI potential. Bank of America analysts, who also raised their price target, said they believe Wall Street “may be underappreciating” opportunities tied to search features like AI Overviews and AI-driven cloud demand.
That trend could suggest more growth for other companies with cloud and digital ad businesses, with several set to report earnings in the coming weeks. Snap is scheduled to report next Tuesday, with Meta and cloud giant Microsoft set to follow Wednesday, and Amazon on Thursday. AppLovin is scheduled to release results the following Wednesday, May 7m with Pinterest’s report due a day later.
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