Prediction: Wall Street May Be Sleeping on Google’s Next Big Move

Quick Read

• Google (GOOG) posted a 94.1% EPS beat in Q1 with $109.9B revenue up 22% YoY, while Google Cloud revenue surged 63% to $20B with backlog nearly doubling to $462B and Cloud operating margins expanding from 17.8% to 32.9%.

• Search queries hit all-time highs with AI Overviews monetizing better than expected, and Waymo crossed 500,000 autonomous rides per week.

• Google’s $462B Cloud backlog with compute constraints positions the company to convert roughly half to revenue within 24 months, while AI monetization across Search and infrastructure CapEx of $180B-$190B in 2026 remain the key levers Wall Street has underpriced.

• The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and Google wasn't one of them. Get them here FREE.

Few mega-caps have shifted the narrative as decisively as Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has over the past year. After a 138.92% one-year run and a 26.65% year-to-date gain, the real question is whether the market has fully priced what comes next. Our model says it has not.

Our 24/7 Wall St. Price Target for Google

Google trades at $397.17. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Google is $473.24, implying 19.15% upside over the next 12 months. The recommendation is buy, with a 90% confidence level, supported by accelerating cloud growth, AI monetization across Search, and a still-reasonable forward multiple.

The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and Google wasn't one of them. Get them here FREE.

What Just Happened: A Blowout Q1 and a Cloud Backlog Explosion

Google posted a 94.1% EPS beat in Q1 FY2026, with revenue of $109.9 billion, up 21.79% year-over-year. Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% to $20.028 billion, with backlog nearly doubling sequentially to $462 billion. Shares moved +9.97% on the earnings report, then kept climbing. The stock now sits within 5% of its $399.93 52-week high, with the 200-day moving average at $289.27.

Reddit's r/stocks thread "GOOG ain't done yet" captured the retail tone, while Egerton Capital added 2.38 million shares and ARK Invest added 174,522 shares this month.

The Case for $549 and Beyond

Our bull case targets $549.06, a 38.24% return. The thesis rests on three legs. First, Cloud operating income tripled YoY with margins expanding from 17.8% to 32.9%, and Pichai noted GenAI product revenue grew nearly 800% year-over-year.

Second, Search queries hit an all-time high, with AI Overviews monetizing better than the bears expected and ads relevance improving by nearly 10%.