Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 1.3% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares traded up 1.3% on Wednesday after Phillip Securities raised their price target on the stock from $340.00 to $395.00. The company traded as high as $337.48 and last traded at $337.12. 24,281,786 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 33,074,992 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.91.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. Wedbush raised their target price on Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Roth Mkm raised their target price on Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.62.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,068,744 shares of company stock valued at $104,505,914 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Several brokerages raised ratings and targets for Alphabet, boosting investor confidence (Phillip Securities raised its price target to $395). Phillip Securities Adjusts Price Target on Alphabet to $395
• Positive Sentiment: Citi raised its price target to the low-$400s and put Alphabet on a 90-day catalyst watch, highlighting near-term product/event catalysts ahead of Q1 results. Wall Street sets Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Positive Sentiment: Stifel Nicolaus published a buy on GOOGL (supporting demand for the shares). Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) Receives a Buy from Stifel Nicolaus
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are flagging Alphabet as a top long-term/momentum AI play and noting an impressive history of earnings surprises — supporting expectations for another beat. Will Alphabet (GOOGL) Beat Estimates Again?
• Positive Sentiment: Partnerships and ecosystem wins (e.g., expanded GitLab integration with Google Cloud) underline GCP traction and recurring-revenue opportunities for cloud customers. GitLab Stock Jumps on Google Cloud Boost
• Neutral Sentiment: Market-level commentary notes a broader tech/Nasdaq rebound and that many investors remain underexposed, which can amplify inflows into large-cap AI leaders like Alphabet. The Bull Case Is Strengthening
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage and price-target moves are concentrated ahead of the April 29 Q1 report, so short-term volatility could increase around that catalyst. Wall Street sets Google stock price target for the next twelve months
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk resurfaced as rival app store Aptoide sued Google, alleging anti-competitive app distribution and billing practices — a fresh antitrust legal overhang. Google sued by rival app store Aptoide
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive threats to ad revenue (notably from Meta) and reports about structural shifts in the ad market could pressure growth long term. Zuckerberg Is Dangerously Close To Cracking Google’s Money Machine
• Negative Sentiment: Security/ad-integrity concerns (HUMAN’s report on AI-driven ad fraud/scareware) pose reputational and monetization risks for Google’s content-distribution channels. HUMAN’s Satori Researchers Identify Novel Ad Fraud
• Negative Sentiment: Some reports also note Stifel lowered expectations in an alternate notice, highlighting that not all analyst commentary is uniformly bullish — a reminder of mixed analyst views. Stifel Nicolaus Has Lowered Expectations for Alphabet

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $4.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $306.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $300.43.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its 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 business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. On average, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

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.