William Blair Analysts Lift Earnings Estimates for Alphabet

Key Points

• William Blair analysts have raised their Q3 2025 earnings forecast for Alphabet to $2.39 per share, reflecting increased optimism from a previous estimate of $2.20.
• Alphabet's stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $215.19, with various analysts holding different ratings from "sell" to "strong buy."
• The company recently announced a $0.21 quarterly dividend, set to be paid to stockholders of record, with an annualized yield of 0.43%.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) - Stock analysts at William Blair upped their Q3 2025 earnings estimates for Alphabet in a research report issued on Wednesday, July 23rd. William Blair analyst R. Schackart now forecasts that the information services provider will post earnings of $2.39 per share for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $2.20. The consensus estimate for Alphabet's current full-year earnings is $8.89 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Alphabet's Q4 2025 earnings at $2.57 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $10.08 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $2.48 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $2.64 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $2.66 EPS and Q4 2026 earnings at $2.82 EPS.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on GOOG. Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $235.00 price objective (up previously from $220.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Roth Capital reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and five have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $215.19.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG traded down $1.38 on Friday, reaching $192.70. 13,919,980 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 24,212,100. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $176.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $174.38. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Equitable Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 166,646 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $29,561,000 after buying an additional 7,611 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,179,326 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $741,371,000 after purchasing an additional 246,622 shares during the period. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,426 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 30.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. now owns 144,398 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $25,615,000 after purchasing an additional 33,549 shares during the period. Finally, Founders Grove Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. Founders Grove Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,139 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $734,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.38, for a total value of $5,992,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,527,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,000,536.96. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 249,409 shares of company stock worth $43,523,710. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 8th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 8.95%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.