Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Argus Analyst Says

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price lifted by stock analysts at Argus from $365.00 to $385.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Argus’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 19.25% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Truist Financial set a $385.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.46.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $322.86 on Friday. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $321.60 and a 200-day moving average of $270.73. The company has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates 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 predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,972 shares in the company, valued at $13,531,453.08. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.4% during the second quarter. Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 26,367 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,647,000 after acquiring an additional 609 shares during the period. DMKC Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $241,000. Finally, ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. now owns 1,109,614 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $195,542,000 after purchasing an additional 10,458 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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

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.