Piper Sandler ups Alphabet, Reddit stock targets on positive ad checks

Investing.com -- Piper Sandler raised its price targets for both Alphabet and Reddit following fresh advertising data and positive company checks, while reiterating an Overweight rating on both stocks.

For Alphabet, analysts boosted their target to $285 from $220, citing a recent U.S. antitrust ruling and stronger advertising trends.

“Google will likely be required to share some data with competitors and outright competitive exclusions disallowed,” Piper Sandler said, but crucially, the ruling avoided major remedies such as divestitures of Chrome or Android.

The firm argued that the outcome removes a long-standing overhang and “warrants a multiple re-rating.”

Ad spending is also said to look encouraging. Piper Sandler’s Ad Buyer data points to “a further acceleration into 3Q25E,” with YouTube spend expected in the low double digits and Search in the mid-single digits.

The bank also noted that Google has a more than 75% chance of exiting 2025 with the top large language model in Gemini, which it believes “is enough to drive multiple expansion.”

On Reddit, Piper Sandler lifted its price target to $290 from $210 after checks showed stronger advertising performance and promising product momentum.

Ad Buyer data revisions have been “most positive for RDDT compared to the group,” with August spend up 5.7%. Monthly active users on Ads Manager rose 3% in August, driven by higher Conversation engagement.

The firm also highlighted the potential upside from data licensing, particularly in light of a recent Anthropic lawsuit that set a precedent for AI companies paying content providers.

Piper Sandler estimates Reddit could generate well above the $150 million in licensing revenue currently expected by the Street.

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