Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $400.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target boosted by Needham & Company LLC from $330.00 to $400.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other reports. BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price for the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial set a $350.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $346.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.46.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.5%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The company has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $321.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $270.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued 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 is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock valued at $105,352,291. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position 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 worth $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC now owns 9,839 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,734,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 498.8% during the second quarter. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 10,222 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 8,515 shares during the period. Finally, NRI Wealth Management LC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $225,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

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.