Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.3% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares shot up 1.3% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $369.48 and last traded at $368.4810. Approximately 43,864,580 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 38% from the average session volume of 31,884,113 shares. The stock had previously closed at $363.79.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it nearly tripled its Alphabet stake to about 57.8 million shares, worth roughly $16.6 billion, signaling strong long-term confidence in Alphabet’s business and valuation.
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is drawing bullish commentary after strong earnings momentum, with reports highlighting accelerating Google Cloud growth and a much larger cloud backlog, reinforcing the company’s AI and enterprise platform opportunity.
• Positive Sentiment: HSBC announced a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to expand AI usage, adding another high-profile enterprise customer and underscoring demand for Alphabet’s cloud and AI services. HSBC partners with Google Cloud to expand AI usage
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts and market commentary continue to frame GOOGL as an attractive AI and cloud stock versus peers, citing earnings momentum and the company’s broad product footprint.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet continues to receive strategic attention around AI leadership, including commentary on Gemini, smart-home devices, and cloud expansion, but these stories are mostly long-term positioning rather than immediate financial catalysts.
• Neutral Sentiment: Google/Waymo also remains in the spotlight after a robotaxi recall tied to construction-zone handling issues, which may matter more for sentiment than for near-term Alphabet earnings. Waymo to recall over 3,800 robotaxis over risk of entering closed construction zones
• Negative Sentiment: A key AI talent setback emerged as Noam Shazeer, a Gemini co-lead and major Google AI figure, is leaving for OpenAI, adding to concerns about competition for top AI researchers. Google’s Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer to join OpenAI
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is facing continued regulatory pressure in the UK, where authorities are imposing stricter requirements on search fairness and transparency, which could weigh on search monetization flexibility over time.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on GOOGL. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $395.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Barclays reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.13.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.3%

The firm has a market capitalization of $4.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $364.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $331.35. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 87,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.75, for a total value of $2,077,531.25. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 159,466 shares of company stock valued at $6,957,543 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $52,000. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.