Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target Raised to $450.00

Key Points

• Goldman Sachs raised its price target on Alphabet from $400 to $450 and maintained a "buy" rating, implying roughly a 21.6% upside from the prior close.
• Alphabet strongly beat Q1 expectations, reporting $5.11 EPS vs. $2.64 expected and $109.9B revenue, fueled by a 63% jump at Google Cloud and growth in subscriptions that spurred multiple analyst upgrades.
• Market sentiment is broadly positive — MarketBeat shows a "Moderate Buy" consensus with the average price target at $385.27 and the majority of analysts issuing Buy/Strong-Buy ratings.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its price target boosted by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group from $400.00 to $450.00 in a report issued on Thursday,MarketScreener reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the information services provider's stock. The Goldman Sachs Group's price objective suggests a potential upside of 21.61% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on GOOGL. Moffett Nathanson upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $435.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.27.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $370.05 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $147.84 and a 52-week high of $377.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $312.08 and a 200 day moving average of $307.27. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $4.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.12.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.59 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Alphabet will post 11.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,179,372 shares in the company, valued at $730,481,906.96. This represents a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 955 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,037,192 shares of company stock worth $94,182,217 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $416,217,000. Sovran Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% during the third quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 13.9% in the third quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $14,277,000 after acquiring an additional 7,180 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors lifted its stake in Alphabet by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 274,761 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $86,000,000 after acquiring an additional 23,107 shares during the period. Finally, Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 21.2% in the third quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,171,000 after acquiring an additional 8,746 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big earnings beat and strong cloud growth — Alphabet crushed Q1 EPS and revenue estimates, driven by a 63% jump at Google Cloud and accelerating ad/subscription trends, which is the primary reason the stock is up. Earnings Call Transcript
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst price-target lifts — Multiple firms raised targets and kept buy/neutral views (Needham to $450, Truist to $415, Rosenblatt to $393, Pivotal to $470), reinforcing upside expectations and supporting further share gains. Price Target Raises
• Positive Sentiment: Subscription and ad strength — 25M net paid subscriptions added and YouTube ad revenue growth bolster recurring revenue and monetization upside. Subscriptions Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Cloud capacity note — Google Cloud topped $20B revenue but management flagged capacity constraints; strong demand is positive, but capacity limits could cap near-term upside. Cloud Capacity
• Neutral Sentiment: Commercial partnerships & infra build — Deals like Stripe integration and local data-center power agreements support monetization and infrastructure scale. Stripe Deal Data Centers
• Neutral Sentiment: Pentagon/classified AI deal — Granting DoD API access opens a new government revenue channel but carries employee pushback and reputational risk; investors treat it as a mixed strategic win. Pentagon Deal
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and governance pressure — Shareholders are pressing for safeguards on cloud/AI usage and the EU is signaling tighter rules on cloud/AI, which could raise compliance costs and constrain some government/enterprise opportunities. Investor Safeguards EU Rules
• Negative Sentiment: Antitrust probe in Switzerland — A probe into alleged keyword-bidding pacts could lead to fines or business restrictions if broadened, adding headline risk for ad-dependent revenues. Switzerland Probe

Alphabet Company Profile

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.

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