Moffett Nathanson Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target upped by Moffett Nathanson from $305.00 to $350.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,MarketScreener reports. Moffett Nathanson currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane started coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. CIBC upped their target price on shares of Alphabet to $315.00 in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Arete Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $354.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $331.25 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $269.25. The firm has a market cap of $4.00 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.21% and a net margin of 32.81%.The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,272,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. This represents a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,035,186 shares of company stock worth $94,458,941. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. increased its stake in Alphabet by 36.4% during the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co increased its holdings in Alphabet by 142.9% during the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reported another beat: Q4 EPS and revenue topped estimates, Google Cloud grew ~48% Y/Y and annual revenue exceeded $400B—clear fundamental drivers for longer?term growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple Wall Street firms raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views after the results, supporting upside case (examples include Deutsche Bank, RBC, Needham and others). Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial traction for AI and subscriptions continues (Gemini user metrics, YouTube/Google One paid subs), reinforcing monetization of AI investments over time. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend ($0.21/share)—signal of returning capital but limited near?term impact on valuation. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling (CAO sold ~933 shares) and mixed analyst notes (some neutral ratings) create potential short?term noise; institutional positioning remains large. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: The 2026 capex outlook—$175B–$185B—shocked markets; investors fear near?term margin/earnings dilution and a multi?year heavy cash outflow, prompting an after?hours/pre?market selloff. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction: shares fell sharply in pre?market/early trading as tech indexes pulled back, reflecting short?term risk aversion to large AI spending even as fundamentals remain solid. Read More.

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.