Zacks Research Upgrades Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to “Strong-Buy”

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Alphabet from $435.00 to $416.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Wolfe Research decreased their target price on Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. New Street Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $390.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Loop Capital lifted 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.73.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $359.51 on Monday. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $180.48 and a twelve month high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $371.39 and a 200 day moving average of $337.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.98 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 14.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. The trade was a 10.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total transaction of $387,061.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $545,941.03. This represents a 41.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 159,415 shares of company stock valued at $7,672,279 in the last 90 days. 11.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $30,534,239,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 13,004,828 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during 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. Finally, Diamant Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28,950.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 9,259,940 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Alphabet from hold to strong-buy, adding to the bullish case ahead of earnings and signaling improved expectations for the company’s near-term outlook.
• Positive Sentiment: INVIDI Technologies said it is collaborating with Google to expand addressable advertising through Google Ad Manager, potentially opening new ad inventory and strengthening Alphabet’s advertising platform.
• Positive Sentiment: Several commentary pieces highlighted Alphabet’s strength in AI, cloud, and digital advertising, reinforcing the view that the company remains well positioned for earnings growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis called for a U.S.-led AI standards body, underscoring Alphabet’s leadership role in frontier AI and keeping the company central to the AI investment theme.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is expected to report earnings on Tuesday, which is keeping traders focused on the upcoming results rather than on any single day’s operating news.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and media coverage around Alphabet being a “trending” stock and a top long-term holding may support sentiment, but these items are not direct catalysts.
• Negative Sentiment: Google is facing renewed antitrust pressure in Europe, including an appeal over a previously scrapped €1.49 billion fine and a Swiss probe into its Android search defaults, which could raise regulatory risk.
• Negative Sentiment: A new lawsuit from publishers and authors accuses Google of using copyrighted works to train Gemini, adding legal uncertainty around its AI strategy.
• Negative Sentiment: UK search data portability rules are also being viewed as a challenge to Google’s search moat, potentially pressuring long-term dominance in its core business.

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.