ChatGPT is not a hindrance: Evercore named Alphabet stock a favorite among blue chips

Now that Alphabet has managed to avoid being forced to sell its Chrome browser, its shares could renew historic highs, according to Mark Mahaney, an analyst at US investment bank Evercore ISI. After the court ruling on the antitrust case, quotes of Google's parent company soared, but Mahaney sees the potential for the rally to continue: he called the search giant's shares his top bet among the largest public companies.

An Evercore ISI analyst reiterated an Outperform rating (Overweight) for Alphabet shares and raised his target price from $240 to $300, calling the company his top favorite among blue chips, MarketWatch writes, citing a September 7 note. Mahaney's new target implies a potential upside of 28% from current levels and is one of the highest on Wall Street.

The Evercore analyst's optimism is based on two factors: the "key catalyst," which Mahoney considers Google's search engine, and "amplifying catalysts" - such as Google's Cloud business, YouTube video hosting and Waymo's robot cab service. Some investors fear that the growing popularity of chatbots is reducing the effectiveness of advertising links on Google's traditional search engine. But Mahaney is convinced that even if ChatGPT and other competitors win back market share, the search giant will continue to dominate commercial search queries. This segment of Google's Internet search has "incomparablymorepotential for monetization" than non-commercial queries, the economist said.

The current value of Alphabet shares is considered "very reasonable" by Evercore analyst. Its securities are trading at 22 projected earnings per share (P / E). Such a multiple Mahaney called "inherently attractive" for Google's business.

"We have a business capable of sustaining EPS growth above 15% (high-teens) and possibly as high as 20%, which we believe would easily justify a P/E multiple of 20-25 and provide significant upside for the stock," he wrote.

Investors were optimistic about the news that Google managed to avoid the worst-case scenario last week following the outcome of the antitrust proceedings - the forced sale of the Chrome browser. After the court ruling, shares of Google's parent company jumped in price by more than 8%.

Alphabet's shares have risen 24% since the start of 2025, and they are now worth almost as much as the average analysts' target price of $235. Despite this, most analysts on Wall Street continue to recommend the search giant's securities to buy and none advise selling them, according to FactSet.

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