Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Dips Despite Waymo Milestone and Strong Search Performance

Key Highlights

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• Key Highlights

• Google’s Search Dominance Remains Intact

• Current Stock Position

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• Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have logged 170.7 million miles in rider-only mode, achieving approximately 10 times fewer serious accidents than human-operated vehicles

• Morgan Stanley maintains its Buy recommendation on GOOGL with a $330 target, highlighting Waymo’s accelerated expansion timeline

• Evercore ISI sustains its Outperform stance with a $400 price objective following survey data revealing Google’s search market share rose from 70% to 75% between August 2025 and March 2026

• ChatGPT experienced a decline in search market presence from 13% to 11% during the identical timeframe; 52% of generative AI users reported increased Google search activity

• The tech giant has declined approximately 7% in 2026 and sits roughly 17% below its $349 peak from February, though nearly 90% of Wall Street analysts maintain Buy ratings

Alphabet (GOOGL) shares retreated 2% during Thursday’s early session to $285.27, caught in broader market turbulence. The S&P 500 declined 0.8% while the Dow Jones fell 0.4%, as oil prices surged over 4%.

Alphabet Inc., GOOGL

The selloff occurred even as the company received encouraging assessments from two prominent Wall Street firms — Morgan Stanley and Evercore ISI — highlighting strength in both its autonomous driving division and core search business.

Brian Nowak, analyst at Morgan Stanley, maintained his Buy recommendation alongside a $330 price objective, noting that “Waymo continues to scale faster than expected…leading with safety.” The autonomous vehicle unit’s latest metrics, covering operations through December 2025, reveal 170.7 million miles driven without human supervision.

These results exceeded Morgan Stanley’s internal projections.

The safety metrics remain impressive. Waymo documented approximately a tenfold reduction in serious collisions and a fivefold decrease in injury-producing accidents when compared to human-driven vehicles.

Waymo’s service currently spans 10 American metropolitan areas. Nowak anticipates the rollout of 15 additional cities throughout this year, coupled with vehicle fleet expansion in markets already operational. Financial analysts generally project robo-taxi operations will at least double annually over the coming years.

Alphabet is committing substantial capital to support this expansion trajectory. The corporation is expected to allocate over $170 billion toward new infrastructure in 2026 — a significant jump from $91 billion in 2025 — per FactSet estimates. This represents considerable capital deployment, even for a technology giant of this scale.

Google’s Search Dominance Remains Intact

Regarding search operations, Evercore ISI confirmed its Outperform assessment and $400 price objective after publishing findings from its eighth consecutive quarterly proprietary search behavior study.

The research demonstrated Google’s search market penetration expanding from 70% to 75% during the August 2025 through March 2026 period. Simultaneously, ChatGPT’s search presence contracted from 13% to 11%.

Evercore reported no meaningful shift in Google’s portion of commercial-intent queries — activities such as purchasing apparel or reserving travel — across the previous two years.

The investment firm increased conviction in its above-consensus Google Search revenue expansion forecast of 14%-plus for 2026, exceeding Wall Street’s 13% consensus. The outlook incorporates anticipated high-single-digit advancement in both paid click volume and cost-per-click metrics.

One advertiser documented conversion rates that doubled — jumping from 7% in Q1 2025 to 14% in Q1 2026. Advertising expenditure patterns remained generally stable or showed acceleration on a year-over-year basis entering Q1, although Evercore noted some hesitation developing within the past 10 days.

Current Stock Position

GOOGL has fallen approximately 7% year-to-date and trades roughly 17% beneath its 52-week peak of $349, reached in February. The majority of the 2026 decline has materialized following the onset of the Iran conflict.

Notwithstanding the downturn, close to 90% of equity analysts tracking the stock assign it a Buy rating — substantially above the standard 55%–60% Buy-rating percentage for S&P 500 constituents. The consensus analyst price target hovers around $380, elevated from approximately $335 at 2026’s beginning.

Alphabet’s revenue expanded 15% during the trailing twelve months, with analysts projecting 17% growth for fiscal 2026. The equity currently carries a P/E ratio of 26.91 alongside a PEG ratio of 0.77.

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