Alphabet Inc. (Alphabet) has seen a surge in stock price this year, with analysts at Bank of America (BofA) stating that there could still be more upside as their research suggests an advantage for Google in the search engine wars. Alphabet is the parent company of Google, and BofA has maintained its “buy” rating for the stock, setting a target price of $128 due to Google’s strong performance. Google’s online web visits range between 2.6 and 3 billion per week on average, and BofA reported that this number was unaffected by rival search engine provider, ChatGPT, which experienced a 5% month-over-month drop in user visits to 62.4 million.
ChatGPT recently released a new mobile app for iOS devices in the US, and achieved 710,000 downloads within three days. However, the BofA research team still believes that Google is in the better position, as ChatGPT is still unable to answer questions on current events or offer external links. Aside from this, a deal with Samsung to keep Google as the default search engine on their smartphones is an additional advantage for Alphabet. The analysts also expressed confidence that AI integration will further bolster Google’s market position, as this integration is set to lead to a global productivity boom.
Alphabet Inc. is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in California. It is the world’s fourth-largest technology company by revenue, and houses many popular and highly successful brands and projects within the company, such as Google, Google Maps, Google Play Store, YouTube, and Waze.
The person mentioned in the article is Bank of America Strategists. Bank of America (BofA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company, which is currently headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. With over $2.3 trillion in assets, Bank of America is the second largest bank holding company in the United States. Two of their main services include retail and commercial banking, and in recent years, the company has seen an increase in wealth management, acquiring Merrill Lynch in 2009, and creating the U.S. Trust business in 2006. As a premier financial institution, Bank of America’s Strategists make market commentary and provide ratings for public stocks.
