Bank of America Securities analyst Justin Post is sticking with his Buy rating on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and a $370 price target heading into the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings report on April 24. Post expects Alphabet to beat Wall Street estimates on both revenue and earnings per share, driven by strength in Google Cloud and the rollout of the company’s Gemini AI platform, according to a report from TheStreet.
The target stands out given where the stock sits. Alphabet shares have been trading near $160 in late April 2026 after a sharp selloff earlier in the year driven by tariff-related fears, a broader market correction across mega-cap tech, and mounting investor concern that the industry’s AI capital spending is outpacing near-term revenue gains. The stock traded above $200 as recently as early 2026 before that combination of pressures pulled it lower. At $160, Post’s $370 figure implies roughly 131% upside, a gap that reflects how far the stock has fallen relative to where at least one prominent analyst believes fundamentals will take it.
A divided Street
Post is far from the only analyst betting on Alphabet’s AI trajectory, but the range of targets reflects genuine disagreement about how fast that story plays out. Separately, a post on ts2.tech referenced a $410 price target on the stock, also citing Gemini and Google Cloud as catalysts. The originating firm and analyst behind that figure were not identified in the piece, so it should be treated as unverified market commentary rather than a confirmed Wall Street call.
The spread between those two numbers captures a real debate: how quickly can AI-driven revenue scale inside Alphabet’s business, and how durable is that growth when Microsoft’s OpenAI-powered Azure, Amazon Web Services, and a growing wave of open-source models are all competing for the same enterprise dollars?
The bull case: Cloud momentum and Gemini adoption
Post’s thesis rests on two pillars. The first is Google Cloud, which has been Alphabet’s fastest-growing segment for several quarters running. Enterprise customers have been drawn to Google Cloud’s differentiated stack, which pairs its Vertex AI development platform with custom-designed TPU chips, giving Alphabet a hardware-software combination that does not depend entirely on Nvidia GPUs.
The second pillar is Gemini, Alphabet’s family of large language models. Gemini now powers AI Overviews in Google Search, productivity features across Google Workspace, and developer tools within Cloud. The critical question for Q1 is whether Gemini is pulling new enterprise contracts and lifting average deal sizes, or whether it remains primarily a defensive play to protect Search market share from ChatGPT and similar AI-powered alternatives.
Post’s note, based on the available summaries, does not specify exact revenue or EPS projections for the quarter, nor does it detail what operating margin path he assumes for Google Cloud. That limits how precisely outside observers can evaluate the call.
Risks that bullish targets tend to gloss over
Both the $370 target and the unverified $410 figure lean on an optimistic AI narrative, but several risks could complicate it. Capital expenditure has surged as Alphabet races to build data center capacity for AI workloads. If Cloud and AI revenue growth do not keep pace, margins could compress, a concern that has already weighed on the stock at various points in recent months.
Regulatory pressure adds another layer of uncertainty. The U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust case targeting Alphabet’s dominance in search advertising remains unresolved. A ruling that forces structural changes to how Google distributes Search or monetizes ads could materially alter the company’s earnings power, and bullish price targets rarely account for that tail risk in full.
Then there is the competitive landscape. Microsoft has embedded OpenAI’s models deeply into Azure and its Copilot suite. Amazon is pushing its Bedrock platform and custom Trainium chips. Meta continues to open-source its Llama models, which could commoditize the underlying technology over time. Alphabet’s ability to maintain pricing power and differentiation in this environment is not a given.
What investors should watch on April 24
For Post’s thesis to gain traction, Alphabet’s earnings report will need to deliver on several fronts: continued acceleration in Google Cloud revenue, tangible evidence that Gemini is contributing to new or expanded enterprise contracts, and stable or improving margins in the core Search advertising business even as AI integration costs rise.
Management’s commentary on capital allocation will matter just as much as the headline numbers. Any signal that capex is approaching a peak, or that returns on AI investment are becoming more visible in the financials, could give the stock a lift. On the other hand, guidance pointing to another stretch of heavy spending without a clear revenue payoff could test the patience of shareholders who have watched the stock languish well below these analyst targets.
Until those results land, Post’s $370 target represents a high-conviction bet that Alphabet’s massive AI investments are not just a cost of staying competitive but a genuine engine for profit growth. April 24 will be the first major test of that conviction this spring.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
