Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $400.00 Price Target at Royal Bank Of Canada

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its price target hoisted by Royal Bank Of Canada from $375.00 to $400.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the information services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $385.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.86.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.5%

GOOGL stock opened at $331.25 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The company has a market capitalization of $4.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $269.25. 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) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 36.21%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the sale, the insider owned 42,972 shares in the company, valued at $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,383,884.14. The trade was a 19.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,035,186 shares of company stock valued at $94,458,941 over the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after purchasing an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reported another beat: Q4 EPS and revenue topped estimates, Google Cloud grew ~48% Y/Y and annual revenue exceeded $400B—clear fundamental drivers for longer‑term growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple Wall Street firms raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views after the results, supporting upside case (examples include Deutsche Bank, RBC, Needham and others). Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial traction for AI and subscriptions continues (Gemini user metrics, YouTube/Google One paid subs), reinforcing monetization of AI investments over time. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend ($0.21/share)—signal of returning capital but limited near‑term impact on valuation. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling (CAO sold ~933 shares) and mixed analyst notes (some neutral ratings) create potential short‑term noise; institutional positioning remains large. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: The 2026 capex outlook—$175B–$185B—shocked markets; investors fear near‑term margin/earnings dilution and a multi‑year heavy cash outflow, prompting an after‑hours/pre‑market selloff. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction: shares fell sharply in pre‑market/early trading as tech indexes pulled back, reflecting short‑term risk aversion to large AI spending even as fundamentals remain solid. Read More.

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.