Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Down 7.1% on Analyst Downgrade

Posted by Stanley Muller on Jul 23rd, 2026

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) was down 7.1% on Thursday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $379.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as low as $314.90 and last traded at $317.69. 68,861,658 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 112% from the average session volume of 32,516,115 shares. The stock had previously closed at $342.09.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $440.00 price target (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Arete Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $460.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Three equities research 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $416.02.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on Alphabet

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total value of $153,432.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,345,358.56. This represents a 1.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Positive Sentiment: Alphabet posted blowout Q2 results, with revenue of $119.8 billion and EPS of $9.11, both above Wall Street expectations, while Google Cloud revenue surged 82% year over year. Reuters: Google quarterly cloud revenue growth beats expectations
Positive Sentiment: Management said AI demand is outpacing capacity, and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said existing customers are spending roughly 50% more than they initially committed, pointing to strong enterprise demand and room for continued growth. CNBC: Google Cloud CEO Kurian says customers are spending 50% more as segment blows away expectations
Positive Sentiment: Search, YouTube, and Gemini also showed momentum, with search revenue up 17% and Gemini nearing 1 billion monthly users, reinforcing Alphabet’s broader AI and consumer platform strength. Business Insider: AI is actually making Google search bigger

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $52,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 7.1%

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 business has a 50 day moving average of $366.14 and a 200 day moving average of $338.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.34 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

About Alphabet

(Get Free Report)

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.

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