Four Conferences + Financial Reports in Succession Bombing! Citigroup Locks in Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) for Bullish Observations, Raising Target Price to $405.

Citigroup published a research report, listing Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) on its 90-day upward catalyst observation list, reiterating a "buy" rating and raising the target price from $390 to $405. Analyst Ronald Josey stated that this adjustment is due to the company's core business presenting a favorable catalyst path. The observation list is valid until July 13th, during which a series of product launches and financial reports will be closely watched. Citigroup pointed out that the "Google Cloud Next" conference from April 22nd to 24th is the first significant event, followed by the first quarter financial report on April 29th, YouTube Brandcast on May 13th, and the Google I/O developer conference on May 19th to 20th. The Google Marketing Live conference is also scheduled for May 20th, marking the end of this busy five-week window. Citigroup predicts that the company will introduce product updates in the Gemini model, search business, YouTube, and cloud services during these events. The institution stated, "Due to strong performance in online advertising and robust demand for Google Cloud, we have raised our expectations, believing that Alphabet Inc. Class C is likely to achieve revenue and operating profit above market expectations." Citigroup noted that the online advertising market is "relatively healthy," which will support continued acceleration in search business revenue. The bank expects first quarter search business revenue to grow by 16.5% year-on-year. Cloud business and AI demand remain strong Citigroup also stated that demand for Google Cloud and its AI-driven services remains robust, and believes this is the core drive of performance exceeding expectations in the short term. The bank expects cloud revenue to grow by 57.5% year-on-year. "In particular, the application of Gemini is still a focus, as the model is integrated into more Google products (such as Ask Maps), cloud business will continue to grow driven by AI demand and partnerships. We still expect capital expenditures to be focused primarily in the second half of 2026," Josey said. According to Citigroup statistics, Gemini has surpassed 750 million monthly active users on the consumer side. Meanwhile, through Gemini Enterprise, the adoption rate on the enterprise side is also steadily increasing. According to the latest quarterly report released by Alphabet Inc. Class C on February 5th, earnings per share were $2.82, higher than the market's expected $2.59; revenue reached $113.83 billion, an 18% year-on-year growth, also surpassing the expected $111.24 billion. The company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share, annualized at $0.84, with a corresponding dividend yield of approximately 0.3%.