Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Climb 1% – Still a Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price rose 1% during mid-day trading on Monday. The company traded as high as $344.99 and last traded at $343.83. 13,111,822 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 36% from the average daily volume of 20,542,955 shares. The stock had previously closed at $340.35.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at Zacks said Alphabet has a strong history of exceeding earnings estimates and currently has the factors needed for another quarterly beat. The view supports confidence in the company’s earnings outlook following its latest quarter, when revenue rose 24.2% year over year and EPS substantially exceeded consensus. Zacks earnings outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled Gemini 4 Argon, an enterprise-focused model designed for complex, multi-step work in areas such as software engineering, cybersecurity, finance and law. A successful launch could strengthen Alphabet’s competitive position and create additional cloud and subscription opportunities. Gemini 4 Argon article
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary highlighted strong Google Cloud growth, a large backlog and multiple ways for Alphabet to monetize AI through advertising, cloud contracts and subscriptions. Other coverage characterized Search growth and AI Overviews as resilient despite investor concerns about elevated capital spending. Alphabet AI monetization article
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet-owned Wing is expanding its drone-delivery partnership with Walmart into additional markets, offering a potential long-term growth opportunity in autonomous delivery and strengthening the visibility of Alphabet’s “Other Bets” businesses. Wing Walmart partnership article
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet joined OpenAI, Nvidia and Meta in a voluntary White House AI safety pledge. The agreement may improve cooperation with policymakers, but its voluntary nature means the direct financial effect is unclear. AI safety pledge article
• Negative Sentiment: Several law firms announced or promoted a securities class action covering investors who purchased Alphabet securities from May 19 through July 16, 2026. The complaints allege misleading statements about Gemini 3.5 Pro’s development and potential launch delays, creating litigation costs, reputational risk and uncertainty for shareholders. Alphabet class action notice
• Negative Sentiment: Investor commentary also continues to flag Alphabet’s sharply higher AI infrastructure spending and the possibility of negative free cash flow. Heavy capital expenditures could pressure near-term margins and cash generation if AI revenue growth does not keep pace. Alphabet free cash flow article

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $450.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Monday, July 27th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $435.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $440.00 to $435.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Freedom Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $419.93.

Alphabet Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $4.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 17.27, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $342.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $345.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $6.24. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 24.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.55 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total value of $28,257.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. This trade represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 441,399 shares of company stock valued at $8,677,053. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Readystate Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,352,000. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 369,922,502 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $130,704,718,000 after purchasing an additional 5,164,200 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 190,923,442 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $67,458,980,000 after purchasing an additional 5,208,690 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in Alphabet by 38,409.2% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,643,262,000 after purchasing an additional 179,369,280 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $18,093,665,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is a technology holding company best known as the parent company of Google. Established in 2015 through a corporate restructuring, Alphabet oversees Google and a collection of businesses focused on technology, innovation and emerging industries. Sundar Pichai serves as Alphabet’s chief executive officer and also leads Google.

Google is Alphabet’s primary business and operates an internet ecosystem that includes Google Search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Photos.