Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 3.4% – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was up 3.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $300.52 and last traded at $297.39. Approximately 37,439,767 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 9% from the average daily volume of 34,497,570 shares. The stock had previously closed at $287.56.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo raised its price target to $397, citing expanding opportunities to monetize Google Cloud (better pricing, new product-led revenue). This upgrade supports bullish estimates for Cloud revenue and margin improvement. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Needham reiterated a Buy rating with a $400 target, reinforcing analyst conviction around long-term AI and cloud upside — another endorsement that can encourage momentum buying. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades have arrived even as an executive sold roughly $2.4M of shares — upgrades boost demand and analyst narratives on valuation and AI/cloud growth; the insider sale appears modest versus Alphabet’s market cap. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Veo 3.1 Lite, a lower?cost AI video model aimed at wider developer adoption — this product could expand API usage and Cloud inference demand if uptake scales. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market internals (broad sector advance and heavy buyer bias) are favoring mega?caps and growth names today, which benefits GOOGL as a liquidity and index leader. This is flow-driven rather than company-specific. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet continues to be highlighted in analyst and feature pieces as a core AI?cloud play (MarketBeat’s AI infrastructure roundup), supporting longer?term positioning though not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet issued very long?dated debt (including a 100?year issuance), showing confidence in capital markets and locking low rates — neutral for equity in the short term but relevant for capital allocation. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Billionaire investor Ray Dalio trimmed his position in Alphabet, which can be read as a signal for some institutional sellers or portfolio rebalancing pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and reputational risks: >200 child?development experts urged Google to block AI?generated videos aimed at young YouTube viewers, and Indonesia summoned Google over child social?media rules — these raise content?moderation and compliance risk that could pressure ad engagement or require costly changes. Read More. Read More.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, March 27th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price target (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. HSBC boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Finally, President Capital increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.06.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.60 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $311.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $295.96. 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:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 2,092,234 shares of company stock worth $112,487,971 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after buying an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 855.3% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,546,413,000 after acquiring an additional 13,004,828 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.