Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.7% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rose 1.7% during trading on Friday after Dbs Bank raised their price target on the stock from $360.00 to $400.00. Dbs Bank currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $342.32 and last traded at $341.68. Approximately 25,206,698 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 23% from the average daily volume of 32,804,949 shares. The stock had previously closed at $336.02.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Daiwa Securities Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Moffett Nathanson lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Truist Financial set a $385.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.25.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 2,068,744 shares of company stock worth $104,505,914 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DBS Bank raised its price target to $400 and kept a “buy” rating, giving the stock meaningful upside from current levels and reinforcing analyst confidence in Alphabet’s growth trajectory. MarketScreener
• Positive Sentiment: Additional analyst upgrades and “buy” calls (e.g., Stifel; an upgrade flagged by AmericanBankingNews) are boosting sentiment and likely contributing to the intraday lift. Stifel Buy Analyst Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Product innovation: Google is expanding Gemini to connect user photos to its Nano Banana image-generation flow — a consumer-facing AI feature that supports engagement and future monetization opportunities for AI services. CNBC
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic & infra wins: NiSource signed a long‑term power supply deal to support a major Alphabet data center in Indiana, helping secure energy for cloud/AI capacity expansion. That reduces some execution risk for infrastructure growth. Reuters
• Neutral Sentiment: Defense opportunity: Reports say Google is negotiating with the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy Gemini models in classified settings — a potentially material contract but still at the discussion stage. Reuters
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary and ranking pieces continue to list Alphabet among top AI/cloud growth stocks; useful for sentiment but incremental for fundamentals. The Motley Fool
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulatory risk: The European Commission is pushing measures that would require Google to share search and AI-chat data with rivals under the Digital Markets Act; that raises competitive and data-control risks in a major market. Reuters EU DMA
• Negative Sentiment: Cost & margin headwinds flagged: Analysis notes that 2026 capex, depreciation and energy expenses could squeeze margins and free cash flow even as AI and cloud revenues grow — a near‑term profit/cashflow risk investors must monitor. Zacks

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $4.13 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $300.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.