11 Best Predictive Analytics Stocks to Buy According to Analysts

7. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Analysts’ Upside: 23.98%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234

A key player in the technology sector, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is led by Google, a search engine that handles billions of search queries every day. The company owns a number of applications and productivity platforms, the most notable of which being YouTube. The company is a data analytics pioneer, having used predictive metrics in Google Analytics for many years. Furthermore, its marketing analytics solution enables businesses to drastically improve customer experience by leveraging valuable insights from data.

On February 5, Needham analyst Laura Martin reiterated a Buy rating and a $225 price target for GOOGL shares. Martin mentioned the company’s outstanding 12% year-over-year revenue growth in Q4 2024, attributed mostly to strong success in Google Search and Cloud. The company’s cloud sector also reported a 30% boost in sales, owing to high demand for AI-powered products and significant acquisitions totaling more than $1 billion.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is doubling down on its AI-driven development strategy, with a $75 billion capital expenditure plan for 2025 that prioritizes investments in technical infrastructure such as servers and data centers. This investment demonstrates the company’s commitment to expanding its AI capabilities and satisfying rising demand for AI-powered services.

Qualivian Investment Partners stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL): Q2 2024 revenues and EPS beat expectations, with total revenues growing 14%, Search ad revenues growing 14%, YouTube ads growing 13%, and Google Cloud revenues growing 29%. Revenue growth in the quarter constituted a continued sequential improvement from earlier quarters in the year, suggesting a continued rebound in Alphabet’s core business except for YouTube ad revenues, which missed expectations and showed deceleration in the growth rate as compared to Q1 when it grew 21%. Operating margins improved by 310 bps vs. the same quarter last year.

Management continued to highlight developments with their generative AI program, which is seen as a foundational platform with opportunities across their businesses but particularly in search and cloud. However, this comes with material capex investment well ahead of the expected economic benefits from Gen AI, and the level of spending is leading investors to worry about the ROI on that spend for Alphabet, as well as the other hyperscalers (Microsoft and Amazon). We continue to have confidence in Alphabet’s ability to generate strong revenue, earnings, and cash flow growth well above the S&P 500’s in the years to come and view it as a core holding for the long term.”