Needham & Company LLC Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target upped by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $330.00 to $400.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 23.89% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $346.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Alphabet from $225.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $357.46.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $321.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $270.17.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co lifted its stake in Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $53,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet beat Q4 estimates with $113.8B revenue, $2.82 EPS, huge Google Cloud growth (48% y/y) and milestone annual revenue above $400B — evidence that AI and ads are driving durable top‑line momentum. Alphabet Crushes Earnings Again, Reports 48% Cloud Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Gemini/product adoption and a surging cloud backlog (reported at ~$240B) support longer‑term revenue leverage from AI investments — a structural growth argument investors and many analysts are citing. Google goes from laggard to leader as it pulls ahead of OpenAI with stellar AI growth
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokers raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views after the quarter (e.g., Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBC, Needham, Mizuho), providing analyst support under the share price. Multiple analyst price target raises (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest data shows no meaningful short position change (reads as negligible/quiet on short‑selling activity), so moves are likely driven by flows and sentiment rather than a short squeeze.
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF/sector flows and inclusion chatter (new Big Tech ETFs) can amplify moves in GOOGL but are not company‑specific catalysts. Big Tech Core: New Burney ETF Packs Apple, Nvidia, Google, Broadcom Punch
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet guided to $175–$185B of capex for 2026 (aimed at AI compute and cloud), a shockingly large jump that has investors fretting about near‑term free cash flow and returns on incremental AI spend — the dominant proximate cause of recent weakness. Alphabet resets the bar for AI infrastructure spending (CNBC)
• Negative Sentiment: Wider market narrative: fears about excessive AI capex are prompting a tech sell‑off (FactSet noted >$1T wiped from big‑tech), which weighs on Alphabet alongside company‑specific capex concerns. Big Tech sees over $1 trillion wiped from stocks as fears of AI bubble ignite sell-off
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was reported after the quarter, adding near‑term pressure on sentiment. Alphabet Shares Down After Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Employee protests over Google Cloud contracts with immigration agencies pose reputational/legal risk that can create headline volatility. Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services for Immigration Agencies

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.