Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 2% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price traded up 2% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $360.16 and last traded at $359.51. Approximately 18,189,491 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 44% from the average daily volume of 32,263,051 shares. The stock had previously closed at $352.51.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is drawing bullish attention from analysts and investors who see it as a durable “monopoly” stock with strong earnings momentum, AI leadership, and a powerful ad business. Here’s Why Alphabet (GOOGL) Is One of the Best Monopoly Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded Alphabet to Strong Buy, which could support the stock near term by reinforcing confidence in its earnings outlook. Alphabet (GOOG) Upgraded to Strong Buy: Here’s What You Should Know
• Positive Sentiment: Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis called for a U.S.-led AI standards body, underscoring Google’s central role in shaping frontier AI policy and model testing. Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis calls for U.S. to spearhead AI standards body
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s collaboration with INVIDI to expand addressable advertising on set-top boxes could open new ad inventory and strengthen its ad-tech ecosystem. INVIDI Technologies Collaborates with Google to Integrate Google Ad Manager
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent commentary also points to Alphabet’s cloud exposure and AI-driven advertising strength, which supports the long-term growth narrative but does not add a new catalyst by itself. Bet on 4 Cloud Computing Stocks to Hedge Against Volatile Markets
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing fresh regulatory pressure in Switzerland, where authorities opened a preliminary probe into whether Android users were unfairly steered toward Google Search after the “choice screen” feature was removed. Google probed by Swiss regulator over Android default search feature
• Negative Sentiment: The company also faces a new AI-training lawsuit from publishers and authors accusing Google of using copyrighted works to train Gemini, adding another legal overhang around its AI strategy. Google faces another AI training lawsuit from major publishers

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. Dbs Bank lifted their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $393.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $355.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Phillip Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.73.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.0%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $371.97 and a 200 day moving average of $336.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,656.24. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $26,298,044.10. The trade was a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 160,465 shares of company stock worth $8,020,511 in the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the period. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.6% in the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $685,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 11.2% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $85,557,000 after acquiring an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.