Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 6.7% Higher – Still a Buy?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were up 6.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $358.58 and last traded at $356.13. Approximately 46,242,734 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 43% from the average session volume of 32,444,031 shares. The stock had previously closed at $333.66.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are increasingly viewed as credible alternatives to Nvidia chips. The potential to use them internally and generate external revenue could improve AI capacity, reduce dependence on Nvidia and create a new business opportunity. Alphabet and Amazon custom AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continued to reassess Alphabet’s earnings strength. The company reported $119.8 billion in quarterly revenue and $9.11 in earnings per share, far exceeding estimates, while Google Cloud growth and the AI backlog supported expectations for continued expansion. Analysts’ average price target is approximately $419.86, with the stock still viewed as relatively inexpensive among major AI companies. Alphabet AI investment and valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s expanded partnership with Oracle will bring Gemini models to Oracle’s enterprise applications, potentially broadening distribution and increasing Google Cloud adoption. Google is also supporting a proposed Anthropic data center with chips and financial guarantees, reinforcing its role in AI infrastructure. Alphabet Oracle Gemini partnership
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI strategy is attracting long-term investors, including Berkshire Hathaway, but the broader AI investment theme remains highly competitive. Strong results from Microsoft also confirmed robust cloud demand while highlighting the intensity of the spending race. Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet plans to spend as much as $205 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, largely for servers and AI infrastructure. Investors remain concerned that negative cash flow, higher memory costs and future depreciation could pressure margins before AI returns fully materialize. Alphabet capital spending
• Negative Sentiment: Legal investigations into possible securities-law violations and criticism that AI Overviews are reducing referral traffic add risk to Google’s advertising ecosystem. Recent director and executive stock sales are a minor additional sentiment headwind, though the transactions were small relative to their remaining holdings. Alphabet investor investigation

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. President Capital lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $375.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $411.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Six equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $419.86.

Alphabet Stock Up 6.7%

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $358.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $339.18. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $4.31 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 4.42%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth 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 period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.