Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Wedbush

Wedbush reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in a report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on GOOGL. Wolfe Research reduced their price target on Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Wall Street Zen raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Daiwa Securities Group increased their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, HSBC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.11.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.2%

Alphabet stock opened at $346.77 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $368.89 and a 200-day moving average of $337.97. Alphabet has a one year low of $183.71 and a one year high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The company has a market cap of $4.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet will post 14.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a $0.22 dividend. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $387,061.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $545,941.03. This trade represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total value of $39,343.36. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Alphabet, with multiple reports citing strong cloud growth, AI-driven momentum in Search and YouTube, and price targets still above current trading levels. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts say Alphabet could post a strong Q2, helped by Google Cloud strength and the value of its Anthropic stake, which may support upside if earnings beat expectations. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also positioning for Alphabet’s upcoming earnings report, with options traders expecting a sizable move, indicating that the stock may stay volatile into the release. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg-reported delays to Gemini 3.5 Pro have sparked fears that Google is lagging in AI, with concerns that the model’s coding performance fell short of internal goals. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing added regulatory pressure after the EU ordered it to open Android and search data to rival AI companies, and a San Francisco order to remove “nudify” apps from app stores adds to the broader legal overhang. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Securities-fraud investigation headlines are creating an additional near-term overhang, even though these are still allegations and not a proven finding of wrongdoing. Article Title

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.