The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle

For Immediate ReleaseChicago, IL – March 20, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks and ETFs featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Alphabet GOOGL, Amazon AMZN, Microsoft MSFT and Oracle ORCL.Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:Google to Buy Wiz for $32B: Smart Move or Risky Bet?Alphabetis set to acquire Wiz for a whopping $32 billion in a deal that will enhance Google Cloud’s security offerings. The Google-Wiz combination will offer security offerings that are supported on multi-cloud and are expected to tackle threats emerging from the advancement of AI, prevent breaches and help enterprises respond to breaches more efficiently. Wiz has a stellar clientele with its cloud security platform currently used by Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle.The $32 billion deal is the largest in Alphabet’s history and is much higher than the $6.1 billion GOOGL spent on cybersecurity provider Mandiant in 2022. The Wiz buyout reflects the growing importance of Google Cloud in the company’s growth plans. The segment accounted for 12.4% of total revenues in 2024, growing 30.6% over 2023, better than the 26% growth it registered in 2023 over 2022.However, the acquisition news seemed less palatable to investors as GOOGL shares fell 2.2% to close at $160.67 on Tuesday, which was an overreaction in our view. Although the buyout price is quite lofty, given GOOGL’s strong cash balance of $95.68 billion, it should provide some relief to investors.Alphabet shares have declined 15.1% year to date due to sluggish cloud growth and higher investments. GOOGL is suffering from a lack of capacity, and until new capacity comes online in 2025, cloud revenues are expected to see increased variability. The company now expects to invest roughly $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, which is aimed at building up technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking.We believe the addition of Wiz to Google Cloud will boost competitive prowess against the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure in the cloud computing space.Expanding AI Portfolio to Boost GOOGL’s ProspectsAlphabet is leveraging AI to attract new clients, win larger deals and deepen product adoption among existing customers. GOOGL’s Gemini models, along with Generative AI (Gen AI) video and image generation models, Veo 2 and Imagen 2, are currently used by more than 4.4 billion developers across products and platforms.Last week, Alphabet introduced new and upgraded features to Gemini users, including Deep Research on 2.0 Flash Thinking, Gems, apps and personalization. The 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model supports file upload and is much more efficient and speedier. GOOGL upgraded Deep Research with Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, which enhances Gemini’s capabilities across all “research stages — from planning and searching to reasoning, analyzing and reporting — creating higher-quality, multi-page reports that are more detailed and insightful.”Alphabet is promoting Gemini as a personal AI-powered assistant with the addition of a new and experimental capability called personalization, powered by Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental. The personalization feature connects Gemini with Google apps and services, including Search, enabling the model to deliver appropriate responses. GOOGL is now making Gemini available to mobile users, replacing the classic Google Assistant.AI is powering Search. Circle to Search is driving additional Search and is gaining popularity among younger users. Vertex usage increased 20 times in 2024, with strong developer adoption of Gemini Flash, Gemini 2.0, Imagen 3 and Veo. GOOGL recently launched Gemma 3, a collection of lightweight, state-of-the-art open models that can run on a single GPU or TPU.Earnings Estimate Revisions Show Steady Trend for GOOGLThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2025 earnings is pegged at $2.02 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days, indicating 6.88% year-over-year growth.The consensus mark for 2025 earnings is pegged at $8.90 per share, steady over the past 30 days, suggesting 10.7% year-over-year growth.Alphabet’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 11.57%.Alphabet Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alphabet Inc. QuoteFind the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.GOOGL Stock Is OvervaluedThe Value Score of C suggests a stretched valuation for Alphabet at this moment.Alphabet stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 6.83X compared with the industry’s 5.56X.GOOGL shares are trading below the 50-day and the 200-day moving averages, indicating a bearish trend.GOOGL Shares Trade Below 50-Day & 200-Day SMAsAlphabet’s growing GenAI capabilities and significant investments in cloud computing present a potential catalyst for the future amid stiff competition in the cloud space and increasing regulatory headwinds. GOOGL’s dominant position in the search engine market and strong position in the cloud are long-term drivers.Alphabet is facing increasing regulatory headwinds and global scrutiny over its search dominance. Google’s alleged wrong practices constitute the utilization of Android to promote its own search engine unfairly. It is facing several lawsuits regarding data privacy, competition practices, AI usage and copyright issues in several countries across the globe.Alphabet currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), suggesting that it may be wise to wait for a more favorable entry point in the stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.See Stocks Free >>Zacks Investment Research800-767-3771 ext. 9339support@zacks.comhttps://www.zacks.comPast performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.Zacks Names #1 Semiconductor StockIt's only 1/9,000th the size of NVIDIA which skyrocketed more than +800% since we recommended it. NVIDIA is still strong, but our new top chip stock has much more room to boom.With strong earnings growth and an expanding customer base, it's positioned to feed the rampant demand for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things. Global semiconductor manufacturing is projected to explode from $452 billion in 2021 to $803 billion by 2028.See This Stock Now for Free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report Oracle Corporation (ORCL): Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks