Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Gets Price Target Increase from Piper Sandler

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target increased by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from $395.00 to $400.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective points to a potential upside of 17.33% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $420.00 price target (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Pivotal Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price objective (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets set a $465.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $425.60.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $340.92 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $343.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $347.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.22. 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 has a 52 week low of $235.84 and a 52 week high of $408.61.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. On average, equities analysts predict that Alphabet will post 20.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total value of $27,692.22. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,414,801.45. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 441,316 shares of company stock worth $8,648,795 over the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 6.0% during the first quarter. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% in the first quarter. Rockbridge Investment Management LCC now owns 5,460 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Ruggaard & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% in the first quarter. Ruggaard & Associates LLC now owns 2,921 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $840,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Cadia Private Client LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Cadia Private Client LLC now owns 2,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $744,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evansbrook LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Evansbrook LLC now owns 9,522 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,738,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s AI growth story remains a key bullish factor. Analysts cited increasing adoption of Gemini across Search, advertising and Google Cloud, while one analysis argued that the company’s AI platform already reaches nearly one billion users and that the stock trades at a discount to slower-growing technology peers. GOOGL’s Prospects Ride on AI Initiatives
• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler raised its Alphabet price target to $400 from $395 and maintained an Overweight rating, pointing to potential upside from Google Cloud and AI infrastructure. The firm also estimated Google’s external Tensor Processing Unit business could generate $104 billion in revenue by 2028. Piper Sandler sees Google TPU sales hitting $104BN by 2028
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud expanded its partnership with Thales to secure and govern agentic AI workflows, while Google’s Gemini technology is being used in the new America.gov government website. These developments could support enterprise AI credibility and adoption. Thales Expands Collaboration with Google Cloud
• Neutral Sentiment: Google Health Enterprise announced a collaboration with WeightWatchers involving Fitbit wearables and AI-powered health insights. The partnership may broaden Google’s enterprise health ecosystem, but its direct financial impact on Alphabet is currently unclear. Weight Watchers and Google Health Enterprise collaboration
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet challenged two European Union orders requiring Google to open parts of Android to rival AI services and provide search data to competing search engines. Investors are concerned that compliance could weaken competitive advantages, increase costs and create privacy risks. Google challenges EU orders
• Negative Sentiment: European regulatory risk was reinforced by a €403 million privacy fine related to Google’s historical processing of users’ location data. France also proposed using proceeds from EU fines to reduce member-state budget contributions, keeping the issue politically prominent. Google’s €403 Million Privacy Fine

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology and internet services company best known as the parent company of Google. Its primary business, Google Services, includes online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a range of hardware and subscription products.

Alphabet also operates Google Cloud, which provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, productivity software, and artificial intelligence services to businesses, governments, and other organizations.