Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Up 1.4% – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price rose 1.4% on Friday . The company traded as high as $312.08 and last traded at $311.43. Approximately 33,051,808 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 43% from the average daily volume of 23,126,211 shares. The stock had previously closed at $307.15.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster performance and better text handling — reinforces product leadership for Gemini/search integrations and helps drive user engagement across Google services. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its AI chips (TPUs) to Meta — a direct revenue and margin-positive outcome from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is securing power supply agreements for data centers (deals with AES and Xcel), which reduces execution risk for its AI/cloud buildout and supports continued capacity expansion. Alphabet Secures Power Deals
• Positive Sentiment: South Korea approved Google’s request to export high‑precision map data, opening commercial opportunities for Google Maps and Waymo in a market previously restricted — potential revenue and product expansion tailwind. South Korea approves Google bid
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy investors continue to add to Alphabet: notable buying by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was reported — an endorsement that can support sentiment among long-term institutional investors. Druckenmiller buys Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage and buy ratings remain favorable (recent upgrades and positive notes on cloud/AI), supporting longer-term upside expectations even after concerns about spending. MarketBeat coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest updates in available feeds show anomalous/zero reporting and NaN changes — appears to be noisy data and unlikely to be driving today’s move. (Data entries flagged as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: Belgian competition authorities opened a probe into Google’s online ad pricing practices — a regulatory risk that could pressure ad margins or lead to fines/operational changes in Europe. Belgian watchdog probe
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure intensified after OpenAI raised massive funding with Amazon/Nvidia/Microsoft as backers — concentrates AI competition and could blunt parts of Google’s enterprise opportunity or pricing power. OpenAI record funding report
• Negative Sentiment: Investor cautions: critics (Michael Burry, some options trade services) have flagged Alphabet’s aggressive AI capex and warned of margin pressure — a reminder of downside risk if spending outpaces near-term monetization. Michael Burry on Google’s AI spending

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Pivotal Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 price objective (up from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $321.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $283.36. The firm has a market cap of $3.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total value of $10,637,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,211,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $723,945,705.60. The trade was a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,112,482 shares of company stock valued at $119,145,289 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Ignite Planners LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% in the second quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 14,506 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,697,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 594,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $105,540,000 after acquiring an additional 41,132 shares in the last quarter. Joseph P. Lucia & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Joseph P. Lucia & Associates LLC now owns 3,134 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 36.3% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,377 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,841,000 after acquiring an additional 2,766 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.