Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.3% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded up 1.3% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as $343.09 and last traded at $342.36. 23,444,866 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 25% from the average daily volume of 31,109,326 shares. The stock had previously closed at $337.83.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet announced Project Suncatcher, an experimental satellite mission scheduled for October 1 that will test AI chips in orbit. The initiative could eventually support space-based computing infrastructure, though commercial benefits are distant and uncertain. Google plans first test of AI chips in space under Project Suncatcher
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud and Gemini Enterprise are being used in a new underwriting platform for The Mutual Group, offering evidence of enterprise AI adoption and potential cloud revenue growth. The Mutual Group Selects Nativeorange to Power Next Generation Underwriting Workbench Built with Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Google is expanding Gemini’s commercial reach: Tapestry will sell Coach and Kate Spade products through Gemini and AI Mode, while Lowe’s is testing Wing drone delivery with DoorDash. These efforts could create new commerce and services revenue streams. Lowe’s is launching a drone delivery service in partnership with DoorDash and Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Google is testing Gemini’s ability to call businesses for users and is reportedly working with OpenAI and Anthropic on frontier-AI safety standards. These developments strengthen the product and governance narrative but have limited immediate earnings impact.
• Negative Sentiment: The recent decline appears driven mainly by AI-stock rotation and investor profit-taking, with no specific company shock identified. Competitive concerns also persist after Anthropic reduced Claude pricing, potentially pressuring the economics of Google Cloud workloads.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and legal overhangs remain: the U.K. proposed giving Android and Chrome users more search-provider choice, and Google is appealing a $425 million privacy verdict. BNP Paribas also said some sensitive operations will remain outside public cloud infrastructure despite its Google partnership, highlighting limits to cloud adoption.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $445.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price target (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $420.00 price objective (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $515.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $411.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $422.16.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The firm has a market cap of $4.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.22. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $344.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.90, for a total value of $2,232,808.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total transaction of $27,692.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,995 shares in the company, valued at $6,414,801.45. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 450,875 shares of company stock valued at $11,984,482 over the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Core Capital Management & Research inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Premier Financial Group acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology and holding company founded in 2015 through a restructuring of Google. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and operates globally, serving consumers, businesses, advertisers and developers across numerous countries and regions.

Alphabet’s largest business is Google Services, which includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and hardware products such as Pixel devices. These products support activities including internet search, digital content distribution, mobile computing, online communications and advertising.