FY2026 EPS Estimates for Alphabet Increased by Analyst

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Research analysts at Erste Group Bank raised their FY2026 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Alphabet in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, March 24th. Erste Group Bank analyst H. Engel now expects that the information services provider will earn $11.48 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $11.44. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.90 per share. Erste Group Bank also issued estimates for Alphabet’s FY2027 earnings at $13.41 EPS.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Wolfe Research increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Piper Sandler restated 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. President Capital upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Pivotal Research increased 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, February 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $280.86 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $314.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $294.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY grew its position in Alphabet by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $685,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after purchasing an additional 48,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its holdings in Alphabet by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the sale, the director directly owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. The trade was a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI/product traction: Analysts note Alphabet’s AI-powered Search and Gemini engagement are picking up, supporting longer-term revenue upside from search and cloud monetization. Alphabet Relies on AI to Boost Search Growth: More Upside Ahead?
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/upside support: MarketBeat and other brokers have been upgrading GOOGL and lifting price targets (consensus targets imply material upside), and Erste Group nudged FY26–27 EPS estimates higher — a tailwind for sentiment beyond short-term noise. Analyst Optimism: MarketBeat’s Most Upgraded Stocks of 2026
• Neutral Sentiment: Product breakthrough vs. market noise: Google’s TurboQuant/compression research (claims of big memory reductions for LLMs) is a technical win for Google’s AI efficiency but has sparked volatility in semiconductor/memory names and some ETF flows — ambiguous near-term impact for GOOGL equity. A Google AI breakthrough is pressuring memory chip stocks from Samsung to Micron
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF and positioning flows: New ETFs and covered-call strategies (e.g., JUDO) are reallocating into/away from AI and semiconductor exposures; this can amplify short-term moves but doesn’t change Alphabet’s underlying fundamentals. Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft Power New JUDO ETF — Can Covered Calls Supercharge Returns?
• Negative Sentiment: Landmark legal risk: A Los Angeles jury found YouTube (Alphabet) liable in a youth social-media addiction case, awarding compensatory damages and opening the door to broader litigation and regulatory scrutiny — a clear catalyst for selling pressure on big-tech names. US jury verdicts against Meta, Google tee up fight over tech liability shield
• Negative Sentiment: Technical/flow-driven weakness: The stock has broken key support levels and entered a correction phase, which amplifies downward momentum as quant/technical selling and option activity kick in. Alphabet Has Fallen 16% From Its Highs: Panic or Opportunity?
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/management churn in key markets: Google’s top India counsel resigned amid regulatory pressure, underscoring execution and policy risks in a major growth market. Google top India counsel quits in latest departure amid regulatory hurdles, sources say
• Negative Sentiment: Cost pressure risk: Geopolitical-driven energy price spikes raise near-term concerns about higher operating costs for energy-intensive AI/data-center operations. Why Alphabet (GOOGL) Shares Are Falling Today

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.