Erste Group Bank Predicts Stronger Earnings for Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Stock analysts at Erste Group Bank boosted their FY2026 EPS estimates for shares of Alphabet in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, February 18th. Erste Group Bank analyst H. Engel now expects that the information services provider will post earnings of $11.44 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $11.26. 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 $13.31 EPS.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Mizuho boosted their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. HSBC increased their price objective on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. UBS Group set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 4.0%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $314.98 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $320.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $279.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. Alphabet has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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 net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total transaction of $314,001.15. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,337,229.80. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock valued at $119,145,289. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Symmetry Partners LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,476,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Members Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,014,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 7,952 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,489,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $978,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LJI Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. LJI Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,265 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,274,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

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.