Erste Group Bank Forecasts Higher Earnings for Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Stock analysts at Erste Group Bank increased their FY2027 earnings estimates for Alphabet in a research report issued on Wednesday, August 5th. Erste Group Bank analyst H. Engel now forecasts that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $14.88 for the year, up from their previous forecast of $14.74. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $20.51 per share.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Arete Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. New Street Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. CICC Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $419.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $343.80 on Monday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $4.20 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.27, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $354.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $340.84. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $196.60 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 855.3% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,546,413,000 after acquiring an additional 13,004,828 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamant Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28,950.0% during the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,671,986,000 after purchasing an additional 9,259,940 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,298,044.10. The trade was a 10.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.42%.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google’s Gemini app surpassed 1 billion monthly active users, marking a major distribution milestone that could strengthen Alphabet’s AI ecosystem, user engagement and monetization potential. Google’s Gemini app surges to one billion users
• Positive Sentiment: Ryanair signed a five-year Google Cloud agreement to deploy Gemini and DeepMind models for crew scheduling and operational decisions, providing evidence of enterprise demand for Alphabet’s AI and cloud offerings. Ryanair signs five-year Google Cloud deal
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s increased AI investment continues to attract investor interest, with analysts highlighting the company’s momentum and potential beneficiaries of its planned data-center spending. However, the scale of investment remains a key debate. Alphabet’s Higher AI Spending Could Boost These ETFs
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s earnings influence on broader S&P 500 growth underscores its importance to market performance, but it also makes the stock more sensitive to shifts in technology-sector sentiment and portfolio positioning. Tech Stocks Have Stumbled
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet remains exposed to more than 3,000 youth-addiction lawsuits alleging that social-media platforms were designed to harm young users. The litigation could create financial liability and increase regulatory pressure. Social media platforms still facing thousands of user addiction lawsuits
• Negative Sentiment: A French newspaper group asked regulators to investigate Google’s AI-generated search summaries, arguing they divert traffic from publishers. Similar disputes could raise compliance costs and threaten parts of Google’s search economics. French media asks French anti-trust watchdog to act on Google’s AI
• Negative Sentiment: AI data centers face significant power and infrastructure constraints, adding execution risk to Alphabet’s large capital-spending plans and raising questions about returns on AI investment. AI’s Next Bottleneck Isn’t Chips, It’s Power Infrastructure

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.