Citizens Jmp Reaffirms “Market Outperform” Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating restated by research analysts at Citizens Jmp in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $385.00 price target on the information services provider’s stock. Citizens Jmp’s price target suggests a potential upside of 19.25% from the company’s previous close.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $310.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $346.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. BNP Paribas Exane started coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group increased their price target on Alphabet from $233.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Three research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $357.46.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $349.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business’s 50 day moving average is $321.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $270.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total value of $202,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 21,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,163,524.48. This trade represents a 2.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock valued at $105,352,291. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

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.