Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading 1.6% Higher – Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shot up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $310.05 and last traded at $309.41. 14,324,370 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 35% from the average session volume of 21,945,879 shares. The stock had previously closed at $304.42.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: MoffettNathanson reiterated a Buy rating and $350 price target, citing YouTube’s strong ad/revenue position (underscores upside from ad recovery and media monetization). Alphabet’s (GOOGL) YouTube Growth Drives MoffettNathanson’s Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet paid a cash dividend ($0.21/share on Mar 16), a direct return to shareholders that can lift sentiment and attract income-focused buyers. Google stock just paid dividends; here’s how much investors received
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple pieces highlight Google Cloud’s acceleration and AI-driven growth pillars, supporting revenue momentum and multi-year backlog visibility for cloud revenue. Alphabet: Inside Google Cloud’s New Growth Pillars
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage notes a large company investment program (reported $346B in investments), showing Alphabet is aggressively deploying cash into growth initiatives that may boost long?term revenue. Google Parent Alphabet’s $346 Billion Investment Is Providing a Big Lift
• Neutral Sentiment: Reuters reports Google procurement teams visited China to source liquid cooling systems (Envicool), a supply?chain/data?center capex detail—supports expansion but ties to geopolitics/sourcing risk. Google in talks with China’s Envicool, others to buy data centre cooling systems, sources say
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry/tech pieces (IBM quantum coverage, MarketBeat) note broader competition in quantum and AI—long-term relevance but limited near-term earnings impact. The New Threat IBM’s Quantum Computing Research Poses to D-Wave (GOOG)
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks questions whether Alphabet’s ~25x P/E is justified given rising capex and potential margin pressure—valuation concerns can cap near-term gains. Is Alphabet Stock’s 25.55X PE Still Worth it? Buy, Sell, or Hold?
• Negative Sentiment: European publishers and tech groups are pushing the EU to speed up an antitrust probe into Google Search, increasing the risk of fines or remedies that could hurt core search economics in Europe. European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search
• Negative Sentiment: An Argentinian court ordered a block of prediction platform Polymarket and instructed Alphabet in enforcement actions—another regulatory/legal touchpoint in international markets. Crypto Prediction Platform Polymarket Blocked In Argentina For Facilitating Unauthorized Betting: Report

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $420.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Needham & Company LLC set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $345.71.

Alphabet Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50 day moving average is $319.10 and its 200 day moving average is $291.55. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.15 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors 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 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at $508,028,012.80. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,076,615 shares of company stock valued at $107,809,111 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Imprint Wealth LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.