Erste Group Bank Forecasts Stronger Earnings for Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Stock analysts at Erste Group Bank lifted their FY2027 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Alphabet in a research note issued on Monday, July 27th. Erste Group Bank analyst H. Engel now expects that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $14.74 for the year, up from their previous forecast of $14.51. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $19.79 per share.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The business had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion.

GOOGL has been the topic of several other research reports. China Renaissance boosted their price target on Alphabet from $400.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wolfe Research dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $440.00 price target (up from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $419.86.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $333.71 on Wednesday. Alphabet has a 12 month low of $187.82 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $360.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $339.07. The firm has a market cap of $4.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 16.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 23,417 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.88, for a total value of $442,112.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents 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 285,049 shares of company stock worth $10,051,351 over the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. EMC Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co raised its stake in Alphabet by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s second-quarter results were strong, with revenue rising 24% year over year to $119.8 billion. Google Cloud revenue surged 82% to $24.8 billion, operating income more than tripled to $8.8 billion, and Search revenue grew 17%, supporting the company’s AI monetization and demand outlook. Alphabet earnings report
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains broadly constructive. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet to “strong buy,” while KeyCorp maintained an “Overweight” rating and a $445 price target. KeyCorp also sharply raised its FY2026 EPS forecast to $20.48 from $14.41 and lifted its FY2028 estimate to $17.88. Erste Group separately increased its FY2027 EPS forecast to $14.74. Alphabet analyst upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Several investment commentaries argue that the selloff was excessive given Alphabet’s accelerating Cloud business, $514 billion backlog and early AI revenue opportunities. The company also expanded YouTube’s ecosystem through a multiyear agreement to include Peacock content for YouTube Premium subscribers. YouTube and Peacock agreement
• Neutral Sentiment: KeyCorp made modest cuts to its Q3 2026 EPS estimate, to $2.99 from $3.02, its Q4 estimate to $3.27 from $3.34, and its FY2027 estimate to $15.24 from $15.27. The firm nevertheless retained its bullish rating and price target. Alphabet analyst estimates
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet raised 2026 capital-expenditure guidance to approximately $195 billion–$205 billion. Quarterly capital spending reached $44.9 billion, pushing free cash flow negative and prompting concerns that AI infrastructure investments could pressure returns, cash generation and future buybacks. Alphabet AI spending concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Additional overhangs include potential European private damages claims following Google’s $1 billion competition fine, scrutiny of Waymo’s emergency-response procedures, and repeated sales by a major shareholder. Broader investor anxiety about AI costs is also weighing on hyperscaler valuations. Google European damages claims

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.