Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Posted by George Bondi on Oct 5th, 2026

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the forty-four research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirty-four have issued a buy recommendation and six have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $419.93.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. HSBC set a $515.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 18th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $379.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Moffett Nathanson cut their price target on Alphabet from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th.

View Our Latest Report on Alphabet

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Positive Sentiment: Gemini 4 Argon strengthens Alphabet’s AI narrative. Google says its new flagship model delivers strong results in coding, cybersecurity, finance, legal work and video understanding. Aggressive pricing could pressure rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic, while potentially expanding demand for Google Cloud and other Alphabet services. Google has been playing catch up with OpenAI and Anthropic
Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive. JPMorgan maintained a positive view, and BNP Paribas reportedly retained a $420 target, citing Argon’s benchmark performance and Alphabet’s ability to monetize AI through its massive consumer, advertising and cloud ecosystems. JPMorgan sets Google stock price target
Positive Sentiment: Market conditions provided a tailwind. Alphabet was among the contributors to gains in the S&P 500, alongside other large technology stocks, indicating that broad risk appetite also helped support GOOG. SPY is up 0.7% today
Neutral Sentiment: New growth initiatives could add longer-term value. YouTube is considering additional live-sports rights, while Project Suncatcher is testing Google AI chips in orbit. Both initiatives are strategically interesting but are unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. YouTube sports strategy
Negative Sentiment: Investors remain skeptical of Argon’s commercial impact. The model’s rollout is restricted initially because of safety concerns, and analysts note that Google still trails competitors in consumer-facing personal AI agents. This helps explain why the stock’s initial AI-related gains faded. Google unveils latest AI model
Negative Sentiment: Legal and regulatory risks remain significant. Alphabet is challenging EU orders requiring access to search data and services, while a new securities-fraud class action covers investors who purchased shares during the May–July period. Separately, publishers may pursue more than $3.2 billion in damages. GOOGL class action notice
Negative Sentiment: AI spending creates valuation and margin concerns. Alphabet is committing heavily to chips, data centers and power even as some analysts warn that expanding compute supply could reduce pricing. Investors need evidence that AI revenue growth will justify the capital expenditure.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at $9,125,015.20. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 441,399 shares of company stock worth $8,677,053. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Readystate Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $45,352,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 38,409.2% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,643,262,000 after acquiring an additional 179,369,280 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $18,093,665,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 76.1% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,581,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,182,952,000 after purchasing an additional 6,300,900 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 190,923,442 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $67,458,980,000 after purchasing an additional 5,208,690 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $340.35 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $342.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $345.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.19. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $236.68 and a 12-month high of $404.47. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $6.24. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $116.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.31 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 20.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

About Alphabet

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Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known as the parent company of Google. Established in 2015 through a corporate restructuring, Alphabet oversees Google and a collection of businesses focused on technology, innovation and emerging industries. Sundar Pichai serves as Alphabet’s chief executive officer and also leads Google.

Google is Alphabet’s primary business and operates an internet ecosystem that includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Photos.