Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

17 Mar 2026, 05:36 by Kim Johansen · The Markets Daily

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. President Capital upped their price target on Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, New Street Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Alphabet

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $305.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. Alphabet has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $318.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $291.05. The stock has a market cap of $3.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.27, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the firm’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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were 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 directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,076,615 shares of company stock valued at $107,809,111. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brooktree Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after acquiring an additional 7,180 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.9% during the second quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. Finally, Centerpoint Advisory Group grew its holdings in Alphabet by 21.0% during the second quarter. Centerpoint Advisory Group now owns 2,407 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. 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: Market perception that Alphabet has shifted from being “hunted” to a “hunter” in the AI race — investors interpret this as improved competitive positioning for search, ads and cloud monetization, supporting near‑to‑midterm growth expectations. Alphabet (GOOG) gained from its shift in the AI race from being ‘hunted’ to being a ‘hunter’
Positive Sentiment: Google closed its ~$32B acquisition of Wiz — strengthens cloud security capabilities and enterprise positioning, which should help diversify revenue and deepen enterprise cloud relationships over time. Wiz investor unpacks Google’s $32B acquisition
Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Needham reiterated a Buy on GOOGL, which can buoy investor sentiment and act as a near‑term catalyst for buying interest. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC
Neutral Sentiment: Heavy retail/investor attention and trending stock coverage (Zacks) — increased searches can raise volatility and volume, but are not a direct signal of fundamentals. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data shows zero reported short shares and a 0.0 days‑to‑cover — likely a reporting anomaly; not meaningful evidence of decreased bearish positioning.
Negative Sentiment: EU regulatory risk: European publishers and tech firms are urging the EU to conclude a long antitrust probe and impose a fine on Google over alleged search favoritism — a faster or larger penalty could pressure revenue from search and create operational constraints. Exclusive: European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search

About Alphabet

(Get Free Report)

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.