Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management took an initial position in Alphabet in early 2023, accumulating more than 10 million shares across its Class A and C share classes. By the end of September 2025, the fund held 6.32 million Class C and 4.84 million Class A shares. Following a 10% trim of the Class A position in Q3, Alphabet shares rallied to fresh highs in December and January. As of the most recent reporting period, Ackman’s fund has realized approximately $2.04 billion in combined profits on the two positions, representing gains of roughly 29% to 64% since his initial purchases in 2023. Investors will watch the next 13F filing for any further changes to this high-conviction stake.

Alphabet has expanded its AI ambitions beyond search and cloud with the rollout of an agentic shopping protocol designed to let consumers complete purchases through conversational agents. Backed by the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), the initiative promises to minimize AI hallucinations by providing real-time inventory and pricing data from major retailers and platforms like Shopify. According to Morgan Stanley forecasts, agentic shopping could account for $385 billion in U.S. online sales by 2030. Should the platform gain traction, it could siphon impulse-purchase volume away from incumbents, bolster Google’s advertising revenues and deepen engagement across its ecosystem.

Wall Street anticipates Alphabet’s Q4 results will showcase continued momentum in three key areas. First, the Gemini generative AI model—now embedded at the top of mobile and desktop search results—has seen daily usage climb into the tens of millions, driven by deep integration with Gmail, Photos and YouTube data (with user consent). Second, Google Cloud delivered a 34% year-over-year revenue increase in Q3 alongside a jump in operating margin from 17% to 24%, as enterprises bid up for AI-optimized compute capacity. Finally, core advertising revenue remains robust, with analysts penciling in mid-teens percentage growth for the quarter. Collectively, these drivers could position Alphabet to exceed consensus revenue and earnings estimates, potentially sparking a stock re-rating.

On January 22, 2026, several major brokerage firms upgraded Alphabet shares to ‘Strong Buy,’ citing the company’s accelerating AI narrative and potential for upward revisions to consensus forecasts. Raymond James increased its cloud revenue projections to 44% growth in 2026 and 36% in 2027—well above the Street’s averages—while Canaccord Genuity and others set 12-month targets near $390 per share. Collectively, analysts foresee an average upside of 15% over the next year, driven by sustained strength in search advertising, expanding cloud margins and the monetization of new AI-driven services.