Citizens Reaffirms Alphabet (GOOGL) Rating Amid YouTube Engagement Dip

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the stocks to buy according to billionaire Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates. On October 13, Citizens maintained its Market Outperform rating on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) with a $290 price target, ahead of the company’s October 29 earnings report. Despite Alphabet’s $2.87 trillion valuation, the firm flagged a notable shift: YouTube saw a 1.2% year-over-year decline in global time spent—the first drop since Citizens began tracking the metric.

The firm attributed this dip to rising competition from platforms like Instagram and TikTok, with TikTok’s global time spent surging 8.7% year-over-year. Citizens emphasized that its data excludes connected TV (CTV) viewing, a major component of YouTube’s overall engagement, suggesting the decline may not reflect total consumption.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a global technology conglomerate. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. Its core businesses include Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, and Google Cloud Platform.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.