Citigroup Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $390.00

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective boosted by investment analysts at Citigroup from $350.00 to $390.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Citigroup’s target price suggests a potential upside of 21.00% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $225.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Alphabet from $310.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $385.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Three 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $357.46.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL traded down $8.94 on Friday, hitting $322.31. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 41,952,116 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,576,953. Alphabet has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.89 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $321.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $269.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Research analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,272,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing 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 on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,531,453.08. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 2,035,186 shares of company stock worth $94,458,941 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 26,367 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,647,000 after buying an additional 609 shares during the period. DMKC Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $241,000. Finally, ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the second quarter. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. now owns 1,109,614 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $195,542,000 after buying an additional 10,458 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Quarterly beat and AI/cloud momentum — Alphabet topped Q4 revenue and EPS estimates, reported ~48% cloud growth, reported >$400B in annual revenue, and disclosed rapid Gemini adoption that supports longer-term monetization and enterprise demand. Alphabet Crushes Earnings — MarketBeat
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street tilt higher — multiple firms raised price targets and reaffirmed buy/overweight ratings after the results, signaling analyst confidence in Alphabet’s AI and ad/cloud runway. Price Target Raises — MarketScreener
• Neutral Sentiment: Dividend announced — Alphabet declared a small quarterly dividend (modest yield) that slightly increases shareholder returns but is unlikely to move the stock materially.
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF flows/market structure — new ETFs (e.g., Burney U.S. Factor Rotation) are packaging big-cap tech exposure, which can support demand over time but is a secondary factor vs. earnings and capex news. Burney ETF — Benzinga
• Negative Sentiment: Massive 2026 capex forecast spooked investors — Alphabet guided to $175–$185B of 2026 capital spending to build AI compute and cloud capacity; the size of the ramp is weighing on near-term sentiment and drove the initial post-earnings selloff. Capex Outlook — Reuters
• Negative Sentiment: Broader AI-driven tech pullback — fears of an AI bubble have triggered sector-wide selling that removes some support for big-cap AI spenders, amplifying Alphabet’s capex concern. AI Sell-Off — CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling flagged — recent reports of insider selling have added to short-term pressure and contributed to the stock’s decline in early trading. Insider Selling — AmericanBankingNews
• Negative Sentiment: Employee protest over government contracts — >800 Google workers petitioned management over cloud services used by immigration agencies, a reputational/governance risk that can attract regulatory and PR attention. Employee Protest — NYTimes

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.