Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given Buy Rating at Stifel Nicolaus

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Stifel Nicolaus in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $395.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $346.00. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 19.98% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Moffett Nathanson boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. CIBC boosted their price objective on Alphabet to $315.00 in a research note on Monday, October 20th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.59.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL traded down $3.83 during trading on Thursday, hitting $329.21. 64,674,002 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 34,250,762. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market cap of $3.97 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $268.82. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $725,942,020.50. This trade represents a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,035,186 shares of company stock valued at $94,458,941 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Moment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 9.3% during the second quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after buying an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Welch Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,325,000 after acquiring an additional 2,467 shares in the last quarter. Brooktree Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and material cloud momentum — Alphabet beat EPS and revenue estimates; Google Cloud grew ~48% in Q4, backlog surged and Gemini usage metrics were highlighted, supporting durable growth drivers. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Major analyst price‑target increases — multiple firms raised targets (examples: Deutsche Bank, RBC, Needham, Pivotal, Mizuho), signaling Wall Street’s confidence in long‑term AI/cloud upside even as volatility follows the earnings release. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo financing and enterprise wins reduce some near‑term burdens — Waymo’s large financing round and new Google Cloud enterprise deals (e.g., Liberty Global, Humana) validate monetization paths beyond ads. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Subscriber/ad trends and product traction — YouTube subscriptions and ad revenue growth and continued search resilience underpin core cash flows, but they raise the bar for future prints. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider and institutional activity — Small insider share sales were reported and institutions shifted positions; such moves are worth watching but don’t change the fundamental story. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Massive 2026 capex outlook rattled investors — Alphabet guided to $175–$185B in capex to scale AI/data‑center capacity, far above street expectations; that spending profile is the main reason the stock is down as investors re‑price near‑term returns and cash flow timing. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Short‑term market reaction and volatility — The capex surprise triggered pre‑market and intraday selling, broader tech weakness and higher volume; expect continued volatility as investors digest execution cadence and ROI on AI investments. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal risks — Ongoing probes and a recent settlement and hearings for Waymo add governance/regulatory headline risk that can amplify sentiment swings. 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.