Erste Group Bank Forecasts Stronger Earnings for Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Analysts at Erste Group Bank upped their FY2026 EPS estimates for Alphabet in a research note issued on Wednesday, February 18th. Erste Group Bank analyst H. Engel now anticipates that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $11.44 for the year, up from their prior forecast of $11.26. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.89 per share. Erste Group Bank also issued estimates for Alphabet’s FY2027 earnings at $13.31 EPS.

GOOG has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $343.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $314.90 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $350.15. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $320.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $280.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.15 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Towne Trust Company N.A grew its stake in Alphabet by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and brokers have raised price targets and highlighted AI/cloud upside (UBS, Canaccord), citing Gemini adoption and generative‑AI capex that could add meaningful cloud revenue. UBS generative AI capex note
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet committed to a major $15B America‑India Connect initiative and announced partnerships (Zillow, Sea) that expand Gemini/Cloud into verticals — positive for long‑term cloud/ads monetization and market reach. America-India Connect announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Notable institutional buying from hedge funds (e.g., Appaloosa/Tepper, Altimeter, Viking) signals conviction in Alphabet’s AI/Cloud thesis and can support the stock through execution milestones. Appaloosa increases stake
• Neutral Sentiment: Product demos (Gemini AI coach, music features) and consumer launches (Pixel device with AI features) improve user engagement and positioning but are not immediate revenue drivers. Gemini demo on CNBC
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data for February shows anomalies (zeros/NaN) and provides no clear bearish signal at present; treat the statistic cautiously until reconciled.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: senior execs disclosed sizable sales (Sundar Pichai, John Kent Walker), which markets often view as a modest near‑term negative signal despite normal tax/liquidity reasons. Pichai sale filing Walker sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/IP risk: prosecutors have charged engineers in an alleged scheme to steal Google trade secrets and pass files abroad — reputational and security concerns that could invite regulatory scrutiny. Trade-secrets indictment
• Negative Sentiment: Execution/supply risks: DeepMind’s CEO warned that memory‑chip shortages constrain agentic AI research/deployment, which could slow rollout timing or raise costs for compute‑intensive initiatives. DeepMind chip shortage comments
• Negative Sentiment: Several institutional investors disclosed trims (Pershing Square, Longview, others). Broad portfolio rebalancing can weigh on near‑term sentiment even if longer‑term AI momentum remains. Pershing Square trim

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.