Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 1.1% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s share price was up 1.1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $306.49 and last traded at $305.56. Approximately 23,451,821 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 33% from the average daily volume of 34,810,367 shares. The stock had previously closed at $302.28.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary says Alphabet has shifted from being “hunted” to a “hunter” in the AI race, highlighting stronger product momentum and competitive positioning for Google/Google Cloud and Gemini — a clear positive for revenue and sentiment. Alphabet (GOOG) gained from its shift in the AI race from being ‘hunted’ to being a ‘hunter’
• Positive Sentiment: Competitor setback: reports say Meta’s new foundational model “Avocado” underperformed versus Google Gemini and Anthropic in internal tests, strengthening Google’s competitive moat in generative AI. Meta May Delay ‘Avocado’ As Tech Underwhelms In Tests Against Google Gemini And Anthropic AI Models: Report
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Needham & Company reiterated a Buy rating on Alphabet, which can bolster investor confidence and buying interest. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic M&A & scale: investor interviews and coverage unpacking Google’s recent $32B Wiz acquisition emphasize strengthening cloud security capabilities — supports longer-term cloud revenue growth. Wiz investor unpacks Google’s $32B acquisition
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail/investor attention: multiple outlets note GOOGL is a trending/searched stock — higher attention can amplify moves but doesn’t alone change fundamentals. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
• Neutral Sentiment: Developer/ecosystem note: Google and Accel India selected 5 startups for an accelerator and flagged many AI “wrappers” — shows Google’s ecosystem curation but limited direct near-term financial impact. Google, Accel India accelerator choses 5 startups and none are ‘AI wrappers’
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: European publishers, tech firms and startups urged EU regulators to wrap up a near‑two‑year probe and impose a fine on Google’s search practices — renewed EU antitrust scrutiny could lead to fines, remedies or business constraints in Europe. Exclusive: European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. President Capital increased their price objective on Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, China Renaissance upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Three investment 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, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.1%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The business’s 50-day moving average is $319.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results 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 35.01%. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,674,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 2,076,615 shares of company stock valued at $107,809,111 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,625,595,000 after buying an additional 2,666,676 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Alphabet by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $21,630,861,000 after buying an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.