Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Target Lowered at Citigroup

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price trimmed by Citigroup from $447.00 to $375.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on GOOGL. Freedom Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $410.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $410.46.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $279.84 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $339.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $340.17. The company has a market cap of $3.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 14.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.21. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $270.70 and a fifty-two week high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.79.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued 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 net margin of 50.03% and a return on equity of 43.33%. The business had revenue of $127.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.96 billion. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet will post 20.40 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total transaction of $28,257.35. Following the sale, the director owned 19,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 247 shares of company stock worth $79,238. Insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in Alphabet by 5.6% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 9,259,940 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 90.9% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,040,373 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,900,078,000 after acquiring an additional 8,112,680 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,612,704,000. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 31,745,979 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,128,850,000 after purchasing an additional 3,574,810 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud revenue more than doubled year over year to approximately $30.7 billion, while its backlog reached $561 billion. The results support Alphabet’s position as a major beneficiary of enterprise AI demand. Alphabet’s Cloud Business Just Doubled
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts remain constructive after the selloff. Guggenheim and Needham reaffirmed “buy” ratings with $450 targets, while Citigroup and Wells Fargo retained bullish ratings and projected substantial upside despite lowering their targets.
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI ecosystem could gain from rising demand for cloud capacity and specialized chips. Waymo is also expanding internationally through a partnership with Toyota, although the business remains small relative to Alphabet’s core operations. Waymo taps Toyota to supply robotaxis
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple securities law firms publicized class-action lawsuits and lead-plaintiff deadlines tied to alleged disclosures about Alphabet’s Gemini AI development. These notices add headline risk, but their direct financial impact remains uncertain.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet reported adjusted earnings of $2.12 per share, below consensus near $2.94-$3.02, while revenue of $127.6 billion also missed expectations. Search and other revenue grew about 12% to roughly $63 billion, but fell short of forecasts, reinforcing fears that AI-generated answers and “AI mode” searches may monetize less effectively than traditional Search.
• Negative Sentiment: AI infrastructure spending caused free cash flow to remain negative by roughly $9.1 billion for a second consecutive quarter. Investors are questioning whether the enormous capital outlays will produce adequate returns and whether Alphabet may need additional debt or equity financing.
• Negative Sentiment: An unrealized loss on Alphabet’s SpaceX investment reduced quarterly earnings by approximately $0.55 per share, while an EU antitrust fine further pressured results. Analysts including RBC, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Wedbush, KeyCorp and Cantor Fitzgerald lowered price targets, even though most maintained positive ratings.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known for its Google subsidiary. Google operates a global internet-services business centered on online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a broad range of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools.

Google Cloud provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software services to businesses, governments, and other organizations. Alphabet also develops consumer hardware, including Pixel devices and products for connected homes, while investing in emerging businesses through its “Other Bets” segment, including autonomous transportation and life sciences initiatives.

Alphabet was established in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring that made Google a subsidiary and provided a separate structure for its expanding portfolio of businesses.