Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Sets New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $330.32 and last traded at $325.8490, with a volume of 10275195 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $321.98.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
• Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
• Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOGL. DZ Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $390.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price target (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.19.

Alphabet Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $306.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $248.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total transaction of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,383,884.14. This represents a 19.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total value of $9,213,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $662,526,494.12. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 225,187 shares of company stock valued at $66,695,036 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $20,886,000 after acquiring an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the period. WBI Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 1st quarter valued at $417,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.8% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,814,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $280,190,000 after purchasing an additional 488,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modern Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 23.0% in the first quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 65,087 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,065,000 after purchasing an additional 12,189 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.