Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Bank of America increased their target price on Alphabet from $370.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Freedom Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. DA Davidson set a $350.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $419.86.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $356.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $339.30. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $187.82 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total transaction of $27,337.98. Following the sale, the director owned 18,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,305,738.46. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 118,138 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth approximately $52,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co raised its position in Alphabet by 142.9% in 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. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

More Alphabet News

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. That could reduce Google’s dependence on external suppliers and create a potential external chip-revenue opportunity. Alphabet and Amazon custom AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlights Alphabet’s record quarter, strong Google Cloud growth, Gemini adoption and enterprise AI demand. Analysts and value-focused investors continue to view GOOGL as comparatively inexpensive among large technology and AI companies. Alphabet AI investment and valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Google is reportedly supporting a $15 billion Anthropic data-center project with chips and financial guarantees, while Oracle is expanding its partnership to bring Gemini models to enterprise applications. These initiatives could drive Google Cloud demand and strengthen Alphabet’s AI ecosystem. Anthropic data center backed by Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s reported quarterly earnings and revenue beat consensus estimates by wide margins, supporting the fundamental case, although investors remain focused on whether AI growth will translate into sufficient cash returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet withdrew its Google Earth AI image-generation feature only one day after launch following criticism that fabricated imagery could spread misinformation. The quick reversal limits immediate product risk but raises questions about AI governance and rollout discipline. Google Earth AI feature withdrawn
• Negative Sentiment: The AI buildout is becoming increasingly expensive. Alphabet is targeting up to $205 billion in 2026 capital expenditures, while rising memory and infrastructure costs are pressuring cash flow and increasing future depreciation. AI buildout costs and cash flow
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales were small relative to the executives’ remaining holdings, but they provide a modest sentiment headwind. Separately, investor-law-firm investigations could create additional legal and reputational overhang. Alphabet director stock sale

About Alphabet

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.