Brokerages Set Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) PT at $368.06

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifty-one brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, forty-four have assigned a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $367.3265.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $397.00 to $361.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $295.77 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $309.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $295.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The company has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.12.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total value of $10,006,425.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,101,227 shares of company stock valued at $114,969,050 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Symmetry Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,476,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Members Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,014,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 7,952 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,489,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. Insight 2811 Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $978,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LJI Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th 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.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive: several outlets note continued Buy/Outperform ratings on Alphabet driven by cloud monetization and AI opportunity — Wells Fargo kept an overweight stance (while trimming targets), signaling upside remains despite lower PTs. Ahead of Meta, Alphabet earnings, Wells Fargo keeps overweight, cuts PTs
• Positive Sentiment: Market/analyst commentary highlights Alphabet’s AI upside — an Outperform rating specifically cites AI growth potential as a driver for long‑term revenue and cloud monetization. Alphabet (GOOGL) Rated Outperform on AI Growth Potential
• Positive Sentiment: Product & tech advances: coverage of Google’s Gemma 4 and reporting on the TurboQuant breakthrough reinforce Alphabet’s lead in model and efficiency advances — positive for future monetization and competitive moat. Google’s Gemma 4 brings AI superpowers to your device Google’s TurboQuant Breakthrough Just Rewrote the AI Playbook
• Neutral Sentiment: Talent movement: Broadcom named Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as its next CFO — a notable departure but not an earnings item; monitor succession and any operational impact. Broadcom taps Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as next CFO
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term cash‑flow risk: Semianalysis’ CEO warned AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year, feeding investor worries about heavy, multi‑year spending before full monetization. Semianalysis CEO: Google’s free cash flow will hit zero next year from AI capex
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/reputational pressure: EU hospitality groups and child‑development experts are urging scrutiny of Google’s search rankings and AI video recommendations, raising potential regulatory and compliance risks in Europe and for YouTube. EU hospitality groups raise concerns over Google search rankings Experts urged Google to prohibit AI Videos targeting young YouTube users
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: An SEC filing shows a senior executive sold ~9k shares in late March — a modest but visible reduction in insider ownership that can prompt short‑term concern. John Kent Walker insider sale disclosure

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.