Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $400.00 price objective on the information services provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 30.95% from the stock’s previous close.
A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on GOOGL. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Arete Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.33.
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Alphabet Price Performance
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.
Insider Transactions at Alphabet
In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total transaction of $10,637,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,211,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,945,705.60. This trade represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,069,344 shares of company stock valued at $104,708,426 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $416,217,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% during the third quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares during the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% during the third quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 274,761 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $86,000,000 after purchasing an additional 23,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wright Investors Service Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 21.2% in the third quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,171,000 after acquiring an additional 8,746 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
More Alphabet News
Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Long?term Broadcom partnership secures future custom AI chips and networking for Google’s next?gen AI racks, reducing execution risk for Google’s TPU roadmap and data?center scale — a bullish infrastructure outcome for Google Cloud revenue and model economics. Broadcom signs long-term deal to develop Google’s custom AI chips
- Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud is the fastest?growing major cloud platform (roughly 50% YoY in Q4), with a surging $240B cloud backlog and TPU hardware advantage — all supporting durable high?margin cloud and AI revenue growth. This is the fundamental thesis investors are buying. Google Cloud Is the World’s Fastest-Growing Major Cloud Platform
- Positive Sentiment: Anthropic’s expanding compute deals (and use of Google/Broadcom capacity/TPUs) underline third?party customer demand for Google’s AI infrastructure, implying higher cloud consumption from large AI model operators. Anthropic ups compute deal with Google and Broadcom amid skyrocketing demand
- Positive Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai’s remarks that the AI shift creates new opportunities to invest in startups signal active capital deployment into strategic AI partners and stakes (e.g., Anthropic/others), which could strengthen ecosystem ties and long?term cloud demand. Google CEO Sundar Pichai says ‘AI shift’ opens opportunities to invest in startups
- Positive Sentiment: On?device AI rollouts (Gemma 4, offline support) and developer stickiness help Google broaden endpoints for its AI stack, lowering customer AI costs and increasing multi?layer monetization (cloud + device + API). Alphabet Stock Edges Higher Tuesday: What’s Going On?
- Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and boutiques are updating price targets and reiterating constructive theses on GOOGL as a large?cap AI/cloud play; useful for sentiment but not an immediate catalyst on its own. Wall Street analyst updates Google stock price target
- Negative Sentiment: Shareholder pressure over water and power use at U.S. data centers highlights regulatory/community and ESG risks that could delay or increase the cost of future data?center builds — a potential headwind for capex timelines and site availability. Investors press Amazon, Microsoft and Google on water, power use in US data centers
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.
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