Wedbush Has Positive Estimate for Alphabet Q1 Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Investment analysts at Wedbush increased their Q1 2025 earnings estimates for shares of Alphabet in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now expects that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $2.04 for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $2.03. Wedbush currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $220.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.02 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q3 2025 earnings at $2.30 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.49 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $8.99 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $10.02 EPS.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%.

Several other analysts also recently commented on GOOG. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $187.14 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $208.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $192.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total value of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,142,195.20. The trade was a 6.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,340 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.08, for a total transaction of $270,787.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,723.84. This trade represents a 6.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 540,093 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $102,855,000 after buying an additional 14,375 shares during the period. Saturna Capital Corp purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at about $273,000. Summit X LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Summit X LLC now owns 11,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,204,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 66,889 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,738,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065 shares during the period. Finally, Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,886 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $359,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.