Alphabet initiated with a Neutral at DA Davidson

DA Davidson initiated coverage of Alphabet with a Neutral rating and $170 price target. As the company faces challenges in its core Search business, its opportunity will migrate to the rest of its portfolio, where its positioning is mixed, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm expects Alphabet to continue trading at a discount to other mega-caps “unless it becomes more aggressive in pursuing those opportunities.” Alphabet at a crossroads, where it will either be “Xeroxed” or emerge as a leader in the most important new categories of compute, contends Davidson.