Pivotal Research Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price objective boosted by Pivotal Research from $400.00 to $420.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Pivotal Research currently has a buy rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Alphabet from $310.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $233.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.5%

Alphabet stock opened at $331.25 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a market cap of $4.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $321.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $269.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 36.21% and a net margin of 32.81%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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 Activity

In other news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the business’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 value of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,035,186 shares of company stock valued at $94,458,941. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reported another beat: Q4 EPS and revenue topped estimates, Google Cloud grew ~48% Y/Y and annual revenue exceeded $400B—clear fundamental drivers for longer‑term growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple Wall Street firms raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views after the results, supporting upside case (examples include Deutsche Bank, RBC, Needham and others). Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial traction for AI and subscriptions continues (Gemini user metrics, YouTube/Google One paid subs), reinforcing monetization of AI investments over time. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend ($0.21/share)—signal of returning capital but limited near‑term impact on valuation. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling (CAO sold ~933 shares) and mixed analyst notes (some neutral ratings) create potential short‑term noise; institutional positioning remains large. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: The 2026 capex outlook—$175B–$185B—shocked markets; investors fear near‑term margin/earnings dilution and a multi‑year heavy cash outflow, prompting an after‑hours/pre‑market selloff. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction: shares fell sharply in pre‑market/early trading as tech indexes pulled back, reflecting short‑term risk aversion to large AI spending even as fundamentals remain solid. Read More.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.