Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 2.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares rose 2.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $410.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $339.82 and last traded at $339.32. Approximately 19,289,814 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 40% from the average daily volume of 32,269,531 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.29.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Arete Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Phillip Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Alphabet from $397.00 to $361.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $369.67.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 2,037,294 shares of company stock valued at $94,216,897 over the last three months. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled two new eighth‑generation TPUs — the TPU 8t for training and the TPU 8i for inference — signaling a direct push at Nvidia in AI infrastructure and the potential to lower Google’s internal costs and monetize TPU sales. Google Cloud launches two new AI chips to compete with Nvidia
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet launched the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and other agent-building tools aimed at giving businesses “agentic” AI assistants — a clear enterprise monetization play that could drive higher cloud software and licensing revenue. Google makes an interesting choice with its new agent building tool for enterprises
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud announced a $750 million partner fund to accelerate agentic AI adoption among consulting firms and system integrators — a lever for faster enterprise deployments and partner-led sales. /C O R R E C T I O N — Google Cloud/
• Positive Sentiment: Big customer commitment: Merck plans a multi‑year partnership with Google Cloud and will invest up to $1 billion to deploy Google’s Gemini Enterprise and infrastructure — a sizable revenue and reference customer for healthcare AI. Merck to partner with Google Cloud on AI initiatives
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support is rising: BMO raised its price target to $410 and other shops (Cantor Fitzgerald, KeyCorp) nudged targets higher — analyst upgrades amplify positive sentiment and can attract additional flows. BMO Raises Alphabet’s Target to $410 and Calls It “the Best Way to Own AI”
• Neutral Sentiment: Google continues product integrations (Chrome “auto browse” AI, Maps generative features) that expand reach across billions of users but have a longer path to direct enterprise monetization. Google turns Chrome into an AI coworker for the workplace
• Neutral Sentiment: Google deepened ties with AI startups (Thinking Machines Lab multi‑billion deal) that boost cloud adoption but also show Google’s stack still incorporates Nvidia GPUs for some partners — underscoring a mixed competitive picture in hardware. Exclusive: Google deepens Thinking Machines Lab ties with new multi-billion-dollar deal
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was reported overnight, a reminder of routine insider liquidity that can weigh on sentiment even amid positive headlines. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down Following Insider Selling

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Symmetry Partners LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,476,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Members Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,014,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 7,952 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,489,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $978,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LJI Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. LJI Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,265 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,274,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.1%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The stock has a market cap of $4.10 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $307.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $303.43.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

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.