TD Cowen continues to endorse Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) with a Buy rating and a price objective at $355, underpinned by promising advancements in the company's autonomous driving division, Waymo. Alphabet’s stock trades near $331.57, encapsulating a market capitalization around $4.01 trillion. Despite trading slightly above its fair valuation based on InvestingPro metrics, the company’s PEG ratio of 0.92 indicates a reasonable balance between growth expectations and current market pricing.
The latest update from TD Cowen adjusts the forecast for Waymo’s operational expansion, integrating plans for service rollouts beginning in 2026. Projections anticipate a fleet of approximately 6,000 Waymo vehicles deployed over 17 cities by the end of that year, marking a significant scale-up from current testing phases.
Financially, this rapid expansion is expected to translate into approximately 28 million paid rides generating gross bookings totaling $463 million by 2026. This would account for roughly 0.7% of the U.S. rideshare market share, signaling Waymo's emerging footprint within the competitive landscape.
TD Cowen highlights that in addition to the expected launches across 12 cities throughout 2026, Waymo is engaged in trials across roughly a dozen more cities, presenting potential avenues for additional market entries in future timelines.
Despite these progressive estimations related to Waymo, TD Cowen chooses to maintain its overarching forecast for Alphabet’s financial trajectory, keeping the $355 price target intact without amendment.
In parallel market news, other financial institutions have taken note of Alphabet’s broader growth vectors. Scotiabank has lifted its price target to $375, attributing the adjustment to robust third-quarter earnings driven by expansions in core sectors such as Search, YouTube, and Cloud services.
Further endorsement comes from industry executives; Google DeepMind's CEO, Demis Hassabis, underlined Alphabet's comprehensive AI capabilities, particularly in generative AI, which is seen as a catalyst for digital advertising enhancement.
Operational initiatives include Google's plan to initiate manufacturing of premium smartphones, including Pixel models, in Vietnam within the current year, diversifying the company's production footprint.
Additionally, Alphabet has introduced Gemini AI functionalities integrated into Gmail, designed to improve user interaction via concise email conversation summaries. This series of developments underscores Alphabet's strategic focus on artificial intelligence deployment and supply chain expansion.