Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 2.8% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price was up 2.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $297.98 and last traded at $294.90. Approximately 24,128,474 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 8% from the average daily volume of 22,398,141 shares. The stock had previously closed at $286.86.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI efficiency wins — investors are cheering a TurboQuant / memory‑efficiency story (claims of ~6x lower memory in key‑value caches), which reduces near‑term cost worries for large models and supports margins and cloud economics. What’s Going On With Alphabet Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/price‑target momentum — Wells Fargo and other brokers have recently lifted price targets and reiterated Buy calls, citing growing Google Cloud monetization and long‑term AI opportunity (high analyst coverage with upside to consensus targets). Wells Fargo Raises PT on Alphabet
• Positive Sentiment: Product rollouts support AI monetization — recent launches (Veo 3.1 Lite for cheaper video generation and Lyria 3 Pro for longer music generation) signal Google is pushing volume/scale use cases that could drive Cloud and Ads revenue streams. What’s Behind The Jump In Alphabet Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Index/ETF and market breadth tailwind — mega‑cap tech is leading a broad risk‑on session and ETFs (VTI/QQQ/SPY) are showing Alphabet among top contributors, amplifying flows into GOOG stock. VTI is up 1.2% today, on GOOGL stock price movement
• Neutral Sentiment: Long‑term positioning — multiple pieces (MarketBeat, AI infrastructure lists) reiterate Alphabet as a core AI‑cloud compounder with sizable cloud backlog and high analyst buy‑side conviction; useful for longer‑term allocation rather than near‑term trading signals. As Digital Ad Spend Hits a High, These Firms Could Reap Rewards
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/reputational risk — >200 child development experts urged Google to block AI‑generated videos for young YouTube users, a development that could force product/recommendation changes or add moderation costs. Experts urged Google to prohibit AI Videos targeting young YouTube users
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent filings show small insider sales (including a sale by the company president), which investors watch as a mild governance/behavior signal (not unusual for large‑cap tech but worth noting). Insider Sale: President of $GOOGL Sells 1,300 Shares

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on GOOG. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Pivotal Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $348.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $345.71.

Alphabet Stock Up 2.8%

The company has a market capitalization of $3.57 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $311.08 and its 200 day moving average is $296.33.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.15 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the company’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 transaction of $35,060,852.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,092,234 shares of company stock worth $112,487,971 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.