Analysts Set Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Target Price at $411.23

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifty-four brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, forty-seven have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $412.6521.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Freedom Capital lowered Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Q1 results were highlighted as one of the strongest among the Mag 7, with Google Cloud showing accelerating sales growth and broader AI momentum helping investor sentiment. Alphabet and NVIDIA: The Biggest Mag 7 Winners This Earnings Season
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s I/O announcements continued to reinforce Alphabet’s AI story, including new AI search experiences, agent tools, and upcoming AI glasses that suggest the company is expanding beyond traditional search. We tried Google’s AI glasses and they’re almost there
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on the stock, with multiple firms reiterating positive views and new AI ad formats seen as potentially boosting conversions and monetization in Search and Commerce. Alphabet’s new AI ad formats seen boosting conversions and spending
• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled a $15 billion Missouri data center investment, underscoring continued capital spending to support AI infrastructure and cloud demand. Google Unveils $15 Billion Missouri Data Center Investment
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles discussed Google’s revamped AI-driven search experience and agent ecosystem, which are strategically important but still too early to measure their near-term financial impact. Google is pitching an AI agent ecosystem to consumers who may not buy it
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo temporarily suspended service in multiple cities after robotaxis drove into flooded roads, adding another safety and execution concern for Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle unit. Waymo suspends freeway rides, pauses Atlanta operations amid safety fixes
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s appeal of the antitrust ruling remains the biggest overhang, since a loss or forced remedies could eventually weigh on the company’s core search and advertising economics. Google appeals US court ruling on search monopoly

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $382.97 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $321.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.21, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $162.00 and a 1 year high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 226,481 shares of company stock worth $27,422,061 over the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,534,239,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,338,397,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% during the 4th 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. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the 4th 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. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after acquiring an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.