Pivotal Research Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Posted by Defense World Staff on Feb 7th, 2026

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) had its price objective lifted by Pivotal Research from $400.00 to $420.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Pivotal Research’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 30.09% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their target price on Alphabet to $315.00 in a report on Monday, October 20th. Loop Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.46.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on GOOGL

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Thursday. 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 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $321.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $270.17.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the completion of 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. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock valued at $105,352,291. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the second 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 28.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

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

About Alphabet

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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.