Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Given New $450.00 Price Target at Citizens Jmp

Key Points

• Citizens JMP lowered Alphabet’s price target to $450 from $515 while maintaining a “market outperform” rating, implying 34.46% upside from the reported $334.68 share price.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: Alphabet has a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $425.04, supported by multiple Buy and Strong Buy recommendations.
• Alphabet’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with EPS of $9.11 versus the $2.89 consensus and revenue of $119.80 billion versus estimates of $117.07 billion; however, AI infrastructure spending, cloud execution concerns and recent insider selling remain potential risks.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its price target cut by research analysts at Citizens Jmp from $515.00 to $450.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "market outperform" rating on the information services provider's stock. Citizens Jmp's price target suggests a potential upside of 34.46% from the company's current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen cut Alphabet from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Freedom Capital upgraded Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial set a $420.00 price objective on Alphabet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $425.04.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $334.68 on Thursday. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $249.29 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The firm has a market cap of $4.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 16.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $343.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $352.84.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet will post 20.60 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at $9,125,015.20. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total transaction of $3,832,277.26. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 339,182 shares of company stock worth $6,740,093 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 238,977,259 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $85,403,303,000 after acquiring an additional 12,718,127 shares in the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 28,950.0% during the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,671,986,000 after acquiring an additional 9,259,940 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Alphabet by 90.9% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,040,373 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,900,078,000 after acquiring an additional 8,112,680 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in Alphabet by 12.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 31,745,979 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,128,850,000 after purchasing an additional 3,574,810 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter worth $1,058,385,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud gains a major customer: OpenAI plans to make its models available through Google Cloud, potentially supporting cloud consumption, enterprise demand and Alphabet’s AI infrastructure strategy. OpenAI to bring AI models to Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: AI and emerging businesses remain growth catalysts: Analysts point to accelerating Google Cloud growth, demand for Alphabet’s custom AI chips, expanded Waymo operations—including Las Vegas airport rides and planned Madrid service—and continued adoption of Gemini products. These developments could diversify revenue beyond Search. Waymo starts offering rides at the Las Vegas airport
• Positive Sentiment: Advertising demand may receive a boost: TikTok is reportedly shifting advertising spending toward YouTube in some markets, which could benefit Alphabet’s video advertising business. Alphabet is also viewed by several analysts as attractively valued relative to its growth and cash-generation potential. TikTok is shifting advertising to YouTube
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings are the next major catalyst: Alphabet is scheduled to report third-quarter results on October 28. Expectations center on continued Cloud and AI-chip strength, but investors will look for evidence that Search growth and profit margins can offset rising infrastructure investment.
• Negative Sentiment: AI spending is pressuring near-term economics: Management has indicated that Google Cloud may give up some revenue opportunities to reserve capacity for AI workloads. The spending could support long-term growth but weighs on current margins and has contributed to investor caution ahead of earnings. Alphabet slips as Google Cloud gives up revenue for AI capacity
• Negative Sentiment: Cloud outage adds execution and regulatory risk: A Google Cloud disruption affected U.K. banks and prompted questions from European financial regulators, raising concerns about reliability and potential reputational or compliance costs. Europe’s financial regulators query Google over cloud outage
• Negative Sentiment: Repeated securities-fraud notices create an overhang: Multiple law firms are promoting a class action alleging Alphabet misrepresented the development timeline for its Gemini 3.5 Pro model. The allegations are unproven, but the litigation and December 1 lead-plaintiff deadline add legal and headline risk after the reported stock decline. Alphabet securities notice

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known for its Google subsidiary. Google operates a global internet-services business centered on online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a broad range of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools.

Google Cloud provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software services to businesses, governments, and other organizations. Alphabet also develops consumer hardware, including Pixel devices and products for connected homes, while investing in emerging businesses through its “Other Bets” segment, including autonomous transportation and life sciences initiatives.

Alphabet was established in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring that made Google a subsidiary and provided a separate structure for its expanding portfolio of businesses.

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