Cantor Fitzgerald Downgrades Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to Hold

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was downgraded by research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $233.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Melius Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Alphabet from $340.00 to $343.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Alphabet from $340.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $328.38 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business has a 50-day moving average of $313.58 and a 200 day moving average of $257.95. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $340.49.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.45, for a total transaction of $31,971.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,706,357.25. The trade was a 0.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 189,909 shares of company stock valued at $57,927,282 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 31,026 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,711,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Sutton Place Investors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Sutton Place Investors LLC now owns 5,461 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Jackson Square Capital LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Jackson Square Capital LLC now owns 78,749 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,648,000 after purchasing an additional 7,385 shares during the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 6,827 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,137,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares during the period. Finally, Provident Living Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,013,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst price-target raises signal renewed buy-side conviction (Deutsche Bank to $370, Robert W. Baird to $350, Wedbush to $360), implying visible upside expectations for revenue and AI-driven growth. Read More. Read More. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial traction for Gemini: reports of a surge in sales of Google’s Gemini AI models point to stronger monetization of AI products and Google Cloud demand. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Positive press narratives reinforce the AI leadership story — coverage highlights 60%+ YTD gains, margin improvement, large shareholder payouts, and Alphabet as a long-term AI winner. These narratives support investor appetite for the stock. Read More. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: YouTube management flags content quality risks from AI-generated video and says ‘managing AI slop’ is a 2026 priority — this is operationally important but shows management is addressing the issue rather than leaving it untracked. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Google-backed Isomorphic Labs delayed first clinical trials into late 2026 — a setback for a non-core, long-horizon biotech bet; limited near-term impact on Alphabet’s core ad/cloud earnings. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Alphabet from ‘strong-buy’ to ‘hold’, signaling some analyst caution on valuation or near-term momentum. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/headline risk pushed tech lower yesterday (Greenland/tariff rhetoric); Alphabet saw a sharper intraday dip than the broader market, highlighting sensitivity to risk-off moves. Read More. Read More.

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.