BMO Capital Markets Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Key Points

• BMO Capital Markets raised its price target on Alphabet to $410 (from $400) and maintained an "outperform" rating, implying about a 21.6% upside from the current share price.
• Other brokerages have also raised targets, leaving Alphabet with an average MarketBeat target of $369.67 and a consensus skewed toward Buy/Moderate Buy (2 Strong Buy, 46 Buy, 4 Hold).
• Near-term catalysts include Google Cloud's AI push (AI agents, new TPUs) and large enterprise deals (Merck, Thinking Machines) that could boost cloud revenue and margins, while insider selling and ad-market competition remain downside risks.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its target price lifted by BMO Capital Markets from $400.00 to $410.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,MarketScreener reports. The firm presently has an "outperform" rating on the information services provider's stock. BMO Capital Markets' price objective points to a potential upside of 21.60% from the stock's current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on GOOGL. Phillip Securities lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Citizens Jmp restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $385.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 13th. New Street Research boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $369.67.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.5%

GOOGL opened at $337.17 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.12. The firm's 50 day moving average is $307.36 and its 200-day moving average is $303.43. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $147.84 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. Analysts expect that Alphabet will post 11.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 51,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total transaction of $348,232.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,581 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,187,638.65. The trade was a 22.67% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,037,294 shares of company stock valued at $94,216,897. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $20,886,000 after buying an additional 4,110 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 506 shares during the period. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY increased its position in Alphabet by 17.6% during the second quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 3,888 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $685,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 485,486 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $85,557,000 after purchasing an additional 48,805 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank grew its position in Alphabet by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 48,204 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $8,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120 shares during the last quarter. 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: CEO Sundar Pichai put “AI agents” front-and-center for enterprise monetization at Google Cloud Next — signaling a clear go-to-market push to sell AI-driven assistants and services to large customers, which supports higher cloud revenue and ARPU. Google puts AI agents at heart of its enterprise money-making push
• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled separate chips for training and for inference (new TPUs), a direct strategic move to lower AI TCO and compete with Nvidia — this supports Google Cloud gross margins and positioning as a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider. Google unveils chips for AI training and inference in latest shot at Nvidia
• Positive Sentiment: Merck committed up to $1 billion to partner with Google Cloud on AI initiatives and Gemini Enterprise licensing — a large, multi-year customer deal that strengthens cloud revenue visibility and validates enterprise demand. Merck to partner with Google Cloud on AI initiatives
• Positive Sentiment: TechCrunch reports a multi-billion-dollar expansion with Thinking Machines Lab to run its AI workloads on Google Cloud infrastructure — another large design win that boosts high-margin cloud services demand. Exclusive: Google deepens Thinking Machines Lab ties with new multi-billion-dollar deal
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street momentum: Cantor Fitzgerald, KeyCorp (and UBS commentary) raised price targets and reaffirmations continue, which can lift investor sentiment and buying interest ahead of Cloud Next product commercialization. Cantor Fitzgerald Raises Alphabet Price Target to $395
• Neutral Sentiment: Google is adding generative AI to Maps and Chrome (wide consumer reach) — enhances product stickiness and ad/commerce hooks but monetization timeframe is uncertain. Google Maps is about to get a big dose of AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Vodafone and other partners continue to bundle Google Cloud AI/cybersecurity — expands distribution but competitive dynamics with AWS/Microsoft persist. Vodafone offers small businesses cybersecurity, AI capability with Google tie-up
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/strategy note: Market commentary highlights Google’s large 2026 capex and a shift to custom silicon (Marvell discussions) — a long-term positive for TCO but requires heavy capital and execution. Here's Why the AI Infrastructure Story Is Just Getting Bigger for GOOGL
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was reported, which can create short-term selling pressure or concern about near-term insider liquidity despite routine 10b5-1 plans. Alphabet Shares Down Following Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Ad market competition remains a headwind — forecasts show Meta may surpass Google in ad revenue, a reminder advertising growth is not guaranteed and can cap valuation upside. Meta Set To Surpass Google With $243 Billion In Ad Revenue

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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