Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 1.9% – What’s Next?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares rose 1.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $303.96 and last traded at $302.46. Approximately 32,134,179 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 12% from the average daily volume of 36,683,930 shares. The stock had previously closed at $296.72.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud locked an expanded, multibillion-dollar strategic deal with Palo Alto Networks — reported by Reuters as “approaching $10 billion” — which materially strengthens Cloud revenue outlook and security services momentum. Google Cloud lands deal with Palo Alto Networks
• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup raised its price target to $350 and kept a Buy rating — a notable analyst upgrade that signals upward earnings/valuation expectations and supports short?term buying interest. Citigroup adjusts price target on Alphabet
• Positive Sentiment: Google reports strong talent flows in AI — ~20% of 2025 AI software engineer hires were “boomerangs” (ex?employees) — which investors view as a competitive advantage in the AI arms race vs. OpenAI/Anthropic/Meta. Google’s boomerang year
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical/trading signals flagged a Power Inflow alert (benzinga), which can attract short?term momentum traders but is not a fundamental catalyst. GOOG Hits Intraday High After Key Trading Signal
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage and thematic stories (Zacks, cloud lists, MarketBeat pieces) are keeping retail/institutional attention on GOOGL as a core cloud and AI holding — supporting flows but not an immediate earnings surprise. Alphabet is a trending stock (Zacks)
• Negative Sentiment: A Spanish consumer group has launched preliminary legal action alleging sensitive data collection and privacy violations — an escalation that could lead to fines or longer-term compliance costs. Spanish consumer group seeks to sue Google in data row
• Negative Sentiment: Mexico’s antitrust authority ordered Google to drop certain Android restrictions — another regulatory action that can pressure mobile?related revenue/margins and raises the risk of further regional remedies. Mexico’s antitrust commission resolves Android case
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider stock sales were disclosed this week (CEO Sundar Pichai and other executives/directors sold shares), which can be viewed negatively by some investors even if sales are routine or for diversification/tax reasons. SEC filing: Sundar Pichai insider sale

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GOOGL. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective (up from $290.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities raised Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on Alphabet from $343.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $315.90.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The business has a fifty day moving average of $289.19 and a 200-day moving average of $233.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total value of $9,743,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,239,619 shares in the company, valued at $671,437,776.20. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total value of $184,914.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,206,872.04. This represents a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $63,183,331. 11.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 36.4% in the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.