- A federal judge rejected a forced breakup of Google's ad business and imposed operational remedies, including limits on data sharing between ad buying and selling tools plus interoperability mandates with third-party ad platforms.
- Alphabet shares traded 2.17% higher at $351.13 as the ruling removed the structural threat to Search and YouTube advertising revenue.
- Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth raised his price target to $485 from $415 with a Strong Buy rating, citing Alphabet's dominance across the AI stack in Search, Cloud and YouTube.
- Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney lifted his target to $450 from $420 on a search rebound: Google was the primary search engine for 78% of survey respondents, up from a 2024-2025 low of 70%.
- Wall Street carries a Strong Buy rating on Alphabet with an average price target of $436.25, while JPMorgan maintains an Overweight rating.
Quotes
“A federal judge today outlined specific restrictions on Alphabet's Google Ads business, stopping short of requiring the company's breakup.”
“Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth kept his Strong Buy rating on Alphabet in place while pushing the price target up to $485 from $415.”
“This upgrade follows Evercore's August 2026 Search survey, which reported Google as the primary search engine for 78% of respondents, a steady climb from a 2024-2025 low of 70%”