Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Jumps 2.1% – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shot up 2.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The stock traded as high as $295.74 and last traded at $293.45. Approximately 24,754,169 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 21% from the average daily volume of 31,448,713 shares. The stock had previously closed at $287.38.

Recent Alphabet Headlines

Here are a few of the latest headlines about GOOGL:

• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Gemini for healthcare, extending its AI offering into a specialized industry and potentially creating new opportunities to serve healthcare organizations. Alphabet launches Gemini for healthcare
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s custom AI-chip push could strengthen Google Cloud’s competitiveness and reduce reliance on outside suppliers. Google unveiled new TPU systems, while Gemini 4 Carbon scored 88.1% on an accounting-AI benchmark; Gemini 4 Argon ranked first. Alphabet escalates AI chip rivalry with Nvidia Google AI models rank highly in accounting benchmark
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic’s planned IPO may highlight the value of Alphabet’s investment and its cloud relationship with the AI company. The article estimates Alphabet’s stake could be worth about $139 billion at the top of the proposed IPO range, while Anthropic’s Google Cloud commitments could generate infrastructure revenue. These are prospective, valuation-dependent benefits. Anthropic IPO could benefit cloud giants

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on Alphabet from $420.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Alphabet from $417.00 to $371.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Alphabet from $420.00 to $410.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Zacks Research downgraded Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Yorkville Ives initiated coverage on Alphabet in a report on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $400.00 price objective on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $412.51.

Alphabet Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.69, a current ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $330.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $338.55.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.02 by ($0.90). Alphabet had a return on equity of 43.33% and a net margin of 50.03%. The firm had revenue of $127.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $127.96 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 19.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 7th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.59%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 19,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. The trade was a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 247 shares of company stock worth $79,238 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in Alphabet by 5.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 238,977,259 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $85,403,303,000 after buying an additional 12,718,127 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 90.9% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,040,373 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,900,078,000 after acquiring an additional 8,112,680 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $1,612,704,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 31,745,979 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,128,850,000 after acquiring an additional 3,574,810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $1,058,385,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. is a technology holding company whose largest business is Google. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google became part of Alphabet when the company reorganized its businesses under the holding-company structure in 2015. Google’s products and services include Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Cloud. The company also generates revenue from digital advertising and offers devices, subscriptions and artificial intelligence products and services.