Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 4% – Should You Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s stock price traded up 4% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $316.50 and last traded at $314.98. 51,964,171 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 40% from the average session volume of 37,096,176 shares. The stock had previously closed at $302.85.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Moffett Nathanson raised their price target on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $385.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.14, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $320.20 and its 200 day moving average is $277.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. On average, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid 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 yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total transaction of $314,001.15. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 9,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,337,229.80. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total value of $184,038.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. This represents a 2.83% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased 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 worth $4,546,413,000 after buying an additional 13,004,828 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after buying an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.