Alphabet's Hardware Growth Adds to Strength in Core Ad Business

Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) core advertising business remained strong and its smartphone and home-automation products were gaining traction, analysts said a day after the company missed profit expectations, hurt by a higher tax rate. Shares were down 1 percent at $849.40 in early trading on Friday, after hitting a record high earlier.
As quoted in the press release:

At least 11 brokerages raised their price targets on Alphabet’s stock, which now has a median price target of $992.50 – indicating a 15.8 percent upside to the stock’s Thursday close.
“From a capital allocation standpoint, we appreciate Alphabet is investing in strategic, promising areas like Google Assistant and hardware, while pausing investment in less rewarding areas like Fiber,” Jefferies analysts said.

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