Alphabet price target cut to $380 but fund manager stays bullish

Alphabet shares plunged 12% on Oct. 29 and another 2% on Oct. 30 after disappointing third-quarter earnings, prompting TheStreet Pro portfolio manager Chris Versace to cut his price target to $380 from $410. He remains bullish despite the record post-earnings selloff. Alphabet missed estimates with $127.57 billion in revenue versus $128.2 billion expected, and earnings per share of $2.12 against a $3.02 consensus. The company reported negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion, far worse than the expected $2.70 billion deficit, while maintaining its $195-$205 billion capital expenditure forecast. Versace cites Google Cloud's 103% revenue growth and $560 billion backlog, plus strong AI adoption with 32 billion tokens processed per minute, as reasons for optimism. He argues fears that AI chatbots will destroy search advertising are exaggerated, though others say Google faces an innovator's dilemma.