Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a $395.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $346.00.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Citic Securities boosted their target price on Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. UBS Group set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have issued 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 Performance

Alphabet stock 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 firm has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $349.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $321.60 and a 200-day moving average of $270.73.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the business’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 directly owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The stock was 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 $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,067,686 shares of company stock valued at $105,352,291 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moment Partners LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the second quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after acquiring an additional 2,467 shares in the last quarter. Brooktree Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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

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.