HSBC analyst Paul Rossington lowered the firm's price target on Alphabet (GOOGL) to $420 from $435 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. A proposed capital raise to fund AI infrastructure and compute growth, as well as employee equity grant tax obligations, was "unexpected" and adds to elevated fundraising and IPO activity at the wider sector level that now includes Anthropic and ahead of an anticipated filing from OpenAI, the analyst tells investors. The firm updated its model for the concurrent underwritten offerings of $30B, the $40B at-the-market offering and the sale of $10B of stock to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), making no changes to estimates with the exception of its overall share count, the analyst tells investors.
