Shares of both Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL and Apple AAPL are trading higher on Wednesday after a ruling from a U.S. judge.
Analysts react to the favorable ruling for Alphabet and share why it’s a big win for Apple:
- Wedbush analyst Dan Ives maintained an Outperform rating on Apple with a $270 price target.
- JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee maintained an Overweight rating on Apple with a $255 price target.
- Bank of America Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan reiterated a Buy rating on Apple and raised the price target from $250 to $260.
Wedbush: “Google and Apple just got a massive win from the courts ruling that the ongoing $20 billion search deal between the two stalwarts will remain and not be barred in its current form,” Ives said.
The analyst said the ruling was a “black cloud worry” for Apple investors, with the potential for the search deal between the giants to end.
“This is a monster win for Cupertino and for Google it’s a home run ruling that removes a [$25 billion] overhang on the stock.”
Apple and Google are likely to continue their search deal, and the companies could even “double down” with a larger AI-related partnership, Ives added. “We now see a green light for a bigger Gemini AI partnership between Apple and Google with this DOJ case now in the rear view mirror.”
JPMorgan: Tuesday’s ruling for Google was “better than feared,” Chatterjee said, saying it has only “modest headwinds,” with exclusive deals not permitted going forward.
“We view the ruling as removing an overhang from the shares with investors more concerned about larger disruption to the currently existing relationship with Google,” Chatterjee said, expecting a “robust” agreement between the two tech giants to continue, even without exclusivity.
Bank of America: Mohan wrote that there likely won’t be immediate changes to the amount of revenue Apple gets from Google after the ruling. Users can change their default search engine in Apple settings today. That could mean no changes even with the judge barring exclusive deals for Google.
The analyst said the ruling provides “more confidence” in Apple’s Services segment in the future.
AAPL, GOOL Price Action: Apple stock is up 2.6% to $235.58 on Wednesday. Its 52-week trading range is $169.21 to $260.10. Apple stock is down 3.4% year-to-date in 2025.
Alphabet stock is up 8.3% to $228.88 on Wednesday. The company’s stock hit new 52-week highs of $229.40 during the intraday session. Alphabet shares are up 20.9% year-to-date in 2025.
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