Pivotal Research Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its target price raised by equities researchers at Pivotal Research from $400.00 to $420.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Pivotal Research’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 26.11% from the company’s current price.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $340.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. China Renaissance raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $207.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. New Street Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $275.00 to $295.00 in a report on Friday, October 24th. Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $344.33.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $333.04 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $321.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $268.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market cap of $4.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.09.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the business’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 value of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total transaction of $10,383,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,272,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $725,942,020.50. This trade represents a 1.41% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,035,186 shares of company stock worth $94,458,941. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. PMV Capital Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Kentucky Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 142.9% during the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Finally, Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat: Alphabet reported stronger-than-expected revenue and EPS and showed continued Google Cloud strength, supporting the company’s growth thesis. Google beats on revenue, projects significant AI spending increase
• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise traction: new cloud/AI deals and customer deployments (e.g., Liberty Global partnership, Humana AI tools) validate Google Cloud monetization and long‑term AI revenue upside. Google Cloud, Liberty Global strike five-year AI partnership Humana Unveils AI-Powered Agent Assist Built With Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo financing: a large private raise for Waymo reduces Alphabet’s near-term funding burden for autonomy and supports valuation optionality for non-core “Other Bets.” Waymo announces $16 billion fundraising round
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reaction mixed but generally constructive — several firms nudged targets higher, which can support the stock but also amplify intraday volatility. Analysts set Google (GOOGL) stock price target
• Neutral Sentiment: YouTube ad revenues and segment metrics are under close watch (Q4 YouTube ad figure reported), small misses would temper the ad growth narrative even as total revenue rose. YouTube ad revenue Q4 2025
• Neutral Sentiment: Reuters and other outlets highlight Alphabet’s turnaround to AI leadership — positive for long-term positioning but raises execution expectations. Google pulls ahead in AI
• Negative Sentiment: Capex shock: management guided to roughly $175–$185 billion of 2026 capital spending to scale AI compute — the large, near-term capex ramp spooked investors and is the primary driver of the share pullback. Alphabet forecasts sharp surge in 2026 capital spending Alphabet resets the bar for AI infrastructure spending
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction: shares fell in after-hours/premarket despite the beat as investors prioritized the spending outlook over the quarter’s results. Shares down premarket after earnings beat
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal and operational risks: Waymo faces safety scrutiny and Alphabet agreed to a modest Android-related settlement; both add execution/regulatory uncertainties. Waymo to defend safety record Android data-transfer settlement
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling and small shareholder sales were reported; while not large enough to change fundamentals, they can amplify short-term downward pressure. Insider sale by Amie Thuener O’Toole

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.