06:15 AM EDT, 04/26/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lift our 12-month target to $190 from $175, on near historical P/E of 22x our '25 EPS estimate. We up our '24 EPS to $7.64 from $6.88 and 2025 to $8.62 from $7.88. GOOG posts Q1 EPS of $1.89 vs. $1.17, beating the $1.50 consensus. Sales rose 15%, better than expected, driven by growth from Search (+14%), YouTube ( GOOG ) (+21%), and the Cloud (+28%); all three businesses surprisingly accelerated from the prior quarter. We are impressed by execution on costs, with operating margin of 40% within Services businesses, where nearly all its profits are derived, widening from 35% in Q4 and year ago. GOOG says $12B quarterly capex will hold through '24 (expect another boost in '25), while $100B combined YouTube ( GOOG )/Cloud ARR forecast illustrates strong growth. We see clear AI monetization tied to the cloud and Gemini offerings, with Google I/O on 5/14 likely showcasing new AI tools/upcoming hardware. On capital allocation, GOOG announces a new $70B buyback (similar to last two years) and initiates a $0.20 quarterly dividend.