Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.6% Following Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares rose 1.6% on Friday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $343.00 to $350.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $307.25 and last traded at $307.16. Approximately 59,255,485 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 61% from the average daily volume of 36,765,758 shares. The stock had previously closed at $302.46.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. CIBC raised their target price on Alphabet to $315.00 in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Arete Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $315.90.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total value of $184,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,206,872.04. The trade was a 13.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total transaction of $9,743,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,239,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $671,437,776.20. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock worth $63,183,331 in the last ninety days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud locked an expanded, multibillion-dollar strategic deal with Palo Alto Networks — reported by Reuters as “approaching $10 billion” — which materially strengthens Cloud revenue outlook and security services momentum. Google Cloud lands deal with Palo Alto Networks
• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup raised its price target to $350 and kept a Buy rating — a notable analyst upgrade that signals upward earnings/valuation expectations and supports short‑term buying interest. Citigroup adjusts price target on Alphabet
• Positive Sentiment: Google reports strong talent flows in AI — ~20% of 2025 AI software engineer hires were “boomerangs” (ex‑employees) — which investors view as a competitive advantage in the AI arms race vs. OpenAI/Anthropic/Meta. Google’s boomerang year
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical/trading signals flagged a Power Inflow alert (benzinga), which can attract short‑term momentum traders but is not a fundamental catalyst. GOOG Hits Intraday High After Key Trading Signal
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage and thematic stories (Zacks, cloud lists, MarketBeat pieces) are keeping retail/institutional attention on GOOGL as a core cloud and AI holding — supporting flows but not an immediate earnings surprise. Alphabet is a trending stock (Zacks)
• Negative Sentiment: A Spanish consumer group has launched preliminary legal action alleging sensitive data collection and privacy violations — an escalation that could lead to fines or longer-term compliance costs. Spanish consumer group seeks to sue Google in data row
• Negative Sentiment: Mexico’s antitrust authority ordered Google to drop certain Android restrictions — another regulatory action that can pressure mobile‑related revenue/margins and raises the risk of further regional remedies. Mexico’s antitrust commission resolves Android case
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider stock sales were disclosed this week (CEO Sundar Pichai and other executives/directors sold shares), which can be viewed negatively by some investors even if sales are routine or for diversification/tax reasons. SEC filing: Sundar Pichai insider sale

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6%

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $289.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $233.80. The company has a market cap of $3.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.