Stifel Nicolaus Reaffirms Buy Rating for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $395.00 target price on the information services provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $346.00. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target indicates a potential upside of 22.34% from the stock’s current price.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $357.46.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Thursday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $321.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $270.17.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total transaction of $202,512.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 21,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,163,524.48. The trade was a 2.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,179,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $730,481,906.96. This trade represents a 1.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.3% in the second quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Welch Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares in the last quarter. Brooktree Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 13.9% in the third quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the second quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after buying an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Roundup

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.