China Renaissance Raises Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $400.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at China Renaissance from $330.00 to $400.00 in a report issued on Friday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. China Renaissance’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 23.89% from the company’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Alphabet from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on Alphabet from $225.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Three 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.46.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $321.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $270.73. The company has a market cap 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The business 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 analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $34,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,307 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,224,380. This represents a 0.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,179,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $730,481,906.96. This represents a 1.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 36.4% during the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

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.