End Of Google’s Dominance? Stock Gets Rare Analyst Downgrade Over AI Fears

End Of Google’s Dominance? Stock Gets Rare Analyst Downgrade Over AI Fears

Share to Linkedin Loop Capital downgraded its stock rating for Google parent Alphabet from a buy to a hold in a buzzy Monday morning note to clients, throwing some cold water on last week's boundless optimism for the Google parent's future in the budding artificial intelligence sphere. AI may not be Google CEO Sundar Pichai's friend after all. The boom in AI chatbots could cause "behavioral changes" that make users less likely to rely on traditional search engines, placing a "ceiling" on Alphabet's valuation, Loop Capital analysts Rob Sanderson and Alan Gould wrote in a Monday note. The strategists set a $118 target for Alphabet shares, a tick above the stock's $117 price Monday and well below the $130 average analyst target for the stock, according to FactSet. It's the first downgrade for Alphabet since at least March 3, per Factset. Shares of Alphabet tumbled as much as 1% in early Monday trading, moving against the tech-heavy Nasdaq's slight gains, though the stock is still up more than 10% over the past week as investors cheered on the company's Wednesday presentation outlining the incorporation of AI into various phases of its business. Loop's skepticism on Alphabet comes not from concerns