Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 2.5% After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Mizuho upgrade lifted Alphabet shares about 2.5%, joining multiple firms that raised targets and leaving the consensus analyst target near $406.71 with a majority rating of Buy/Outperform.
• Major cloud win: Anthropic has committed roughly $200 billion to Google Cloud and chips over five years, and Google is expanding its AI stack (selling TPUs, developing the "Remy" agent), while strong demand for a recent euro bond offering eases funding for AI capex.
• Strong fundamentals: Alphabet posted a big earnings beat (EPS $5.11 vs. $2.64 expected; revenue $109.9B) and modestly raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22, underscoring profitability and shareholder returns.

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) shot up 2.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $420.00 to $460.00. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $399.85 and last traded at $398.3030. 30,954,622 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 32,293,586 shares. The stock had previously closed at $388.43.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on GOOGL. Loop Capital raised their target price on Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Roth Mkm reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, CICC Research lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $406.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,923,235.59. The trade was a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total value of $37,842.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,908,391. The trade was a 0.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 158,553 shares of company stock valued at $47,951,856. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Huge corporate cloud demand — Anthropic has committed to spend about $200 billion with Google Cloud (and on Google chips) over five years, a multi-year revenue and capacity win if it holds. Anthropic commit
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud and AI product expansion — reports that Google may sell TPUs directly and is developing an AI agent (“Remy”) reinforce the company’s vertical stack (infrastructure + models + user-facing products), supporting higher cloud and services monetization. TPU sales story Remy agent
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and price-target lifts — multiple firms raised targets or reiterated buy/outperform ratings this week, adding momentum and providing buy-side cover for further buying. Daiwa raise President Capital raise
• Positive Sentiment: Debt markets show confidence — Alphabet’s large euro bond offering attracted strong demand, easing funding for aggressive AI capex without equity dilution. Euro bond demand
• Neutral Sentiment: U.S. security reviews / stress tests — Alphabet (DeepMind) will share models with U.S. agencies for pre-deployment checks; this reduces surprise regulatory risk but increases short-term oversight and compliance work. US stress tests
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative and positioning — coverage noting Alphabet closing in on NVIDIA and broader “Mag-7” AI tailwinds supports momentum but raises valuation-sensitivity narratives; some outlets flag technical correction risk. Market cap story
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal exposure in Europe — Google proposed changes to how it displays news results to try to avoid further additions to roughly €9.5 billion in EU competition fines, highlighting ongoing sizeable regulatory risk. EU fines story
• Negative Sentiment: EU data-sharing concerns and labor unrest — an internal scientist warned EU proposals could risk user privacy, and DeepMind staff in the UK have voted to unionize over AI–military work, both increasing regulatory, reputational and operational scrutiny. EU privacy warning DeepMind unionize

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth about $30,534,239,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Alphabet by 4.9% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 3,218,852 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $315.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $309.67. The stock has a market cap of $4.82 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.38, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 1.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 13.58 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 6.41%.

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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