Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price Up 1.1% – Time to Buy?
by Jessica Moore · The Cerbat GemAlphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) shares rose 1.1% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $330.32 and last traded at $325.44. Approximately 31,487,588 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 1% from the average daily volume of 31,891,727 shares. The stock had previously closed at $321.98.
Key Alphabet News
Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:
- Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
- Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
- Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
- Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
- Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
- Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
- Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
- Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Mizuho set a $365.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $236.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.19.
View Our Latest Research Report on GOOGL
Alphabet Stock Performance
The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $306.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $248.74. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.
Alphabet Announces Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.28%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total value of $10,439,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,244,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.45, for a total transaction of $31,971.90. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,706,357.25. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 225,187 shares of company stock worth $66,695,036. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 28.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
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.