Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading Up 1.1% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rose 1.1% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $358.62 and last traded at $357.37. 33,839,883 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 3% from the average session volume of 33,007,801 shares. The stock had previously closed at $353.65.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s entry into the Dow Jones Industrial Average is boosting demand for the stock and highlighting its growing importance in AI and large-cap tech. Reuters: Alphabet debuts in Dow Jones Industrial Average as index tilts toward tech
• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Nano Banana 2 Lite, a faster and cheaper in-house image generator, which could support AI adoption and improve the economics of its creative AI tools. TechCrunch: Google introduces a faster, cheaper image generator with Nano Banana 2 Lite
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remained constructive, with earnings estimates and bullish stock commentary signaling continued confidence in Alphabet’s growth outlook. Zacks: Is Alphabet (GOOG) a Solid Growth Stock? 3 Reasons to Think Yes
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s stock is benefiting from multiple upbeat Dow-inclusion and target-price updates, including a fresh analyst price target increase to $415. Benzinga: Alphabet Replaces Verizon In Dow Jones As Analyst Boosts Target To 415
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud’s AI and public-sector partnerships, along with stablecoin-related collaboration news, add to the view that Alphabet can expand beyond search and ads. PYMNTS: Visa and Google Sign on to Use Money Movement Stablecoin OpenUSD
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet continues to attract heavy investor attention, but some articles mainly reflect sentiment and valuation debate rather than a direct business catalyst.
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary about Alphabet joining the Dow and broader Magnificent Seven rotation underscores its status as a major AI stock, though it does not change fundamentals by itself.
• Negative Sentiment: UK regulators opened a consultation that could force Apple and Google to allow alternative payment paths outside their app stores, threatening a key fee stream. TechXplore: UK targets Apple, Google app store fees for developers
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Google is losing AI talent to Anthropic and facing questions about compute constraints may raise concerns about long-term AI execution. LA Times: Google hit by new AI brain drain as Anthropic poaches top Gemini talent

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOGL. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $435.00 target price (up from $427.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Evercore increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $415.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $413.90.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.1%

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $369.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $333.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $4.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.98 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This is a positive change from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 6.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.72, for a total transaction of $153,432.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,345,358.56. This trade represents a 1.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 152,084 shares of company stock valued at $5,056,301 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,534,239,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $4,338,397,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 13,004,828 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $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 hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Alphabet

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.