Wolfe Research Lowers Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $360.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target reduced by equities research analysts at Wolfe Research from $390.00 to $360.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Wolfe Research’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 13.49% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $366.92.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.4%

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $317.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The company has a market cap of $3.84 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.34, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.12. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $146.10 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $306.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $298.67.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total value of $10,637,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,211,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,945,705.60. This represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,069,344 shares of company stock valued at $104,708,426. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after buying an additional 2,666,676 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,630,861,000 after buying an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Stronger AI/cloud positioning: Google expanded its multi‑year AI infrastructure partnership with Intel to co‑develop processors and power Google Cloud AI workloads — a sign of durable demand for cloud AI capacity that supports Google Cloud revenue growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Broadcom and Anthropic deals validate Google’s AI infrastructure strategy and the broader market for non‑NVIDIA accelerators — a constructive signal for Alphabet’s AI cost and supply relationships. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness on AI adoption: BNP Paribas and other commentators highlight Gemini and Anthropic as drivers that can take share in the generative AI market, underpinning ad/productivity monetization upside for Alphabet. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Monetization tailwind — YouTube raised U.S. Premium prices, which should boost ARPU and subscription revenue over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish price‑target action from Mizuho (raised to $420) reinforces upside thesis for investors focused on long‑term AI/cloud gains. (No link)
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest report is effectively meaningless/noisy for today’s move (data shows zero shares / reporting artifact), so it’s not the driver of the stock’s action. (No link)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk for Waymo: A California bill would require more human operators for robotaxis, raising operating costs and regulatory uncertainty for Alphabet’s autonomous‑vehicle ambitions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: International/content regulatory pressure: Indonesia issued a reprimand to YouTube over new social media rules for children, underscoring regional enforcement risk that can hit engagement or require costly compliance changes. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade pressure: Wolfe Research trimmed its price target from $390 to $360, which increases short‑term selling pressure despite the firm still rating the stock “outperform.” (No link)

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.