Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Citigroup raised their target price on Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. President Capital raised their target price on Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $385.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.33.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $299.99 on Friday. Alphabet has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The stock has a market cap of $3.63 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $308.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $297.26.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were given 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 was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $416,217,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after acquiring an additional 7,180 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares during the period. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. increased its position in Alphabet by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 1,457,732 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $256,896,000 after acquiring an additional 65,439 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 274,761 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $86,000,000 after purchasing an additional 23,107 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Long-term Broadcom deal to build and supply custom AI chips through 2031 secures a multi-year supply path for Google’s next‑generation AI racks, lowering hardware risk for Google Cloud/AI scaling and supporting product rollout plans. Broadcom signs long-term deal to develop Google’s custom AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: A Wall Street analyst reaffirmed a constructive outlook on Alphabet, helping investor sentiment despite unit‑level challenges (notably in autonomous driving), which supports near‑term buying interest. Wall Street analyst updates Google stock price target
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet stands to realize a sizeable paper gain from its early SpaceX stake if the IPO proceeds at reported valuations, an upside that can underpin long‑term investor thesis. 2 Stocks About To Make a Killing on the SpaceX IPO
• Neutral Sentiment: Broadcom’s expanded arrangement also includes providing computing capacity to Anthropic using Google’s AI processors — this could generate cloud‑revenue or cost recovery opportunities but also helps a competing AI vendor scale. Broadcom agrees to expanded chip deals with Google, Anthropic
• Neutral Sentiment: Intel’s push into advanced chip packaging and talks with cloud providers could reshape the supply chain and introduce new competition/partners for AI infrastructure; this is a sector development to monitor. Intel Targets Amazon, Google on AI Chip Packaging
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/opinion pieces highlighting Alphabet’s ~27x P/E and earnings outlook provide supportive narrative for value‑oriented investors but are commentary rather than new fundamentals. Alphabet: Why Strong Money Likes It At 27x P/E
• Negative Sentiment: Wells Fargo trimmed its price target on Alphabet, signaling some analyst caution that can weigh on sentiment even if the new target remains above current levels. Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Alphabet Price Target
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by Alphabet’s CAO was reported, a small but negative signal investors watch for timing and magnitude. Insider Selling: Alphabet CAO Sells Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Shareholder pressure and community opposition over water and power use have already led to abandoned data‑center projects; environmental and permitting risks could raise costs or delay capacity expansion. Investors press Amazon, Microsoft and Google on water, power use

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.