JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $460.00

Key Points

• JPMorgan raised its price target on Alphabet to $460 from $395 and kept an "overweight" rating, implying roughly a 24.31% upside from the prior close.
• Alphabet beat Q1 expectations, reporting $5.11 EPS vs. $2.64 expected and $109.9B in revenue, driven by a 63% jump in Google Cloud and strong ad/subscription growth that spurred analyst upgrades.
• Multiple brokers lifted targets and maintained buy/outperform views, though MarketBeat's consensus remains a "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $385.27, notably below JPMorgan's view.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) had its target price lifted by equities research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $395.00 to $460.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has an "overweight" rating on the information services provider's stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s price objective suggests a potential upside of 24.31% from the company's previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Dbs Bank upped their target price on Alphabet from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 price objective (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.27.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $370.05 on Thursday. 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 has a twelve month low of $147.84 and a twelve month high of $377.04. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $312.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $307.27. The firm has a market cap of $4.48 trillion, a PE 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.59 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 11.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total transaction of $348,232.50. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,187,638.65. The trade was a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,037,192 shares of company stock valued at $94,182,217. 11.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $30,534,239,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $4,338,397,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 13,004,828 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% in the third 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 during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting 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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