Cantor Fitzgerald Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock Price

Key Points

• Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target on Alphabet to $395 from $370 and maintained an overweight rating, implying about a 16.35% upside from the prior close.
• Analysts overall remain broadly positive with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target of $368.94, though individual firm targets and ratings vary from strong-buy to hold.
• Alphabet recently reported an EPS beat ($2.82 vs. $2.57) on $113.83B revenue, its shares traded around $339.50 (market cap ~$4.11T), and insiders have been net sellers (about 2.07M shares sold in the last three months).

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its price target boosted by equities research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $370.00 to $395.00 in a research note issued on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the information services provider's stock. Cantor Fitzgerald's price target points to a potential upside of 16.35% from the stock's previous close.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other reports. Raymond James Financial upgraded Alphabet from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Dbs Bank raised their price target on Alphabet from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Wolfe Research reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock traded down $2.18 during trading on Monday, hitting $339.50. 2,547,064 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 32,375,328. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $306.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $302.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.12. Alphabet has a 1-year low of $146.10 and a 1-year high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares of the company's stock, valued at $856,605,814.08. This represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,069,794 shares of company stock valued at $104,854,147 in the last three months. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,534,239,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth $4,338,397,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 855.3% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,546,413,000 after purchasing an additional 13,004,828 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 valued at $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp raised its price target on GOOGL from $370 to $380 and reiterated an "overweight" rating, signaling analysts see meaningful upside from current levels. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: A separate note flagged a $400 price target in market write-ups, adding to bullish analyst momentum that can support sentiment and buying interest. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports say Google is in talks with Marvell to develop two new AI chips (TPUs). The talks are still at the reporting stage, but the move would fit Google’s push to optimize AI performance and costs — potentially positive long term if confirmed. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader institutional interest (reports that Bridgewater/ Ray Dalio holds Alphabet among AI-focused positions and multiple bullish pieces on Alphabet’s AI leadership) supports a constructive narrative for longer-term investors. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst and media coverage also highlights investor concern that Alphabet will sharply increase AI spending (reports it may roughly double AI capex), which contributed to a sharp pullback earlier this month and remains a near-term margin/earnings risk. Read More.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.