Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $420.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective upped by Pivotal Research from $400.00 to $420.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on GOOGL. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (up previously from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “positive” rating and issued a $350.00 target price (up from $268.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $357.46.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Thursday. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $321.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $270.73. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.87, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,884.14. This trade represents a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

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

More 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

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.