Daiwa Securities Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target hoisted by equities research analysts at Daiwa Securities Group from $333.00 to $380.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Daiwa Securities Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 22.20% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. China Renaissance upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $361.64.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.4%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $310.96 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $321.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $273.37. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.77, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total transaction of $10,439,325.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,067,086 shares of company stock valued at $105,184,255. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666,676 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,881,908 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $16,865,158,000 after acquiring an additional 774,336 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple firms raised price targets and maintained buy ratings (Arete to $405, New Street to $380, President Capital to $375, Daiwa to $380), which supports upside expectations from analysts. Arete Research price target New Street Research price target
• Positive Sentiment: EU antitrust regulators gave unconditional approval for Google’s $32B Wiz cybersecurity acquisition, removing a major regulatory overhang on the deal. Reuters: Wiz approval
• Positive Sentiment: Google is testing new shopping ad formats inside Search AI mode and Gemini, which could expand high-margin ad inventory and diversify monetization. PYMNTS: Shopping feature
• Positive Sentiment: Google participated in a large funding round for humanoid robotics startup Apptronik, signaling continued strategic investment in robotics/AI ecosystems. Reuters: Apptronik funding
• Neutral Sentiment: JPMorgan reiterated a Buy and other outlets (Zacks, CNBC coverage) continue to highlight Alphabet as a structural AI/cloud beneficiary — supporting longer-term conviction even as near-term volatility persists. JPMorgan reiteration
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet significantly increased bond issuance (initial $20B, later reports of >$30B) and is pursuing very long-dated debt (reports of 100‑year paper) to fund massive AI infrastructure and acquisitions — investors worry this signals heavy near-term cash burn and margin pressure from capex. Reuters: $20B bonds WSJ: 100-year bond
• Negative Sentiment: High-profile criticism and skepticism surfaced (e.g., Michael Burry commentary, media pieces suggesting 100‑year bonds reflect risk), amplifying investor concern about the financing move. Finbold: Burry comment
• Negative Sentiment: Privacy/regulatory headlines: report that Google handed personal and financial data of a student-journalist to ICE, plus an EU publishers’ complaint over AI Overviews, raise legal/regulatory risk that could pressure reputational and compliance costs. TechCrunch: data to ICE Reuters: publishers complaint

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.