Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report)’s stock price shot up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $310.05 and last traded at $309.41. 14,324,370 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 35% from the average session volume of 21,945,879 shares. The stock had previously closed at $304.42.
Trending Headlines about Alphabet
Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:
- Positive Sentiment: MoffettNathanson reiterated a Buy rating and $350 price target, citing YouTube’s strong ad/revenue position (underscores upside from ad recovery and media monetization). Alphabet’s (GOOGL) YouTube Growth Drives MoffettNathanson’s Buy Rating
- Positive Sentiment: Alphabet paid a cash dividend ($0.21/share on Mar 16), a direct return to shareholders that can lift sentiment and attract income-focused buyers. Google stock just paid dividends; here’s how much investors received
- Positive Sentiment: Multiple pieces highlight Google Cloud’s acceleration and AI-driven growth pillars, supporting revenue momentum and multi-year backlog visibility for cloud revenue. Alphabet: Inside Google Cloud’s New Growth Pillars
- Positive Sentiment: Coverage notes a large company investment program (reported $346B in investments), showing Alphabet is aggressively deploying cash into growth initiatives that may boost long‑term revenue. Google Parent Alphabet’s $346 Billion Investment Is Providing a Big Lift
- Neutral Sentiment: Reuters reports Google procurement teams visited China to source liquid cooling systems (Envicool), a supply‑chain/data‑center capex detail—supports expansion but ties to geopolitics/sourcing risk. Google in talks with China’s Envicool, others to buy data centre cooling systems, sources say
- Neutral Sentiment: Industry/tech pieces (IBM quantum coverage, MarketBeat) note broader competition in quantum and AI—long-term relevance but limited near-term earnings impact. The New Threat IBM’s Quantum Computing Research Poses to D-Wave (GOOG)
- Negative Sentiment: Zacks questions whether Alphabet’s ~25x P/E is justified given rising capex and potential margin pressure—valuation concerns can cap near-term gains. Is Alphabet Stock’s 25.55X PE Still Worth it? Buy, Sell, or Hold?
- Negative Sentiment: European publishers and tech groups are pushing the EU to speed up an antitrust probe into Google Search, increasing the risk of fines or remedies that could hurt core search economics in Europe. European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search
- Negative Sentiment: An Argentinian court ordered a block of prediction platform Polymarket and instructed Alphabet in enforcement actions—another regulatory/legal touchpoint in international markets. Crypto Prediction Platform Polymarket Blocked In Argentina For Facilitating Unauthorized Betting: Report
Analyst Ratings Changes
GOOG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target (up from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $300.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $345.71.
Alphabet Trading Up 1.6%
The business’s 50 day moving average price is $319.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $291.55. The company has a market cap of $3.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.62, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,076,615 shares of company stock valued at $107,809,111. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet
Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.8% during the second quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 2,590 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Thomas Story & Son LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $224,000. Mivtachim The Workers Social Insurance Fund Ltd. Under Special Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $12,169,000. Finally, Y.D. More Investments Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 7.8% in the second quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 47,972 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,503,000 after buying an additional 3,486 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.
Alphabet Company Profile
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.
Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.
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