Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 1.9% – Here’s What Happened

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares rose 1.9% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $305.26 and last traded at $303.75. Approximately 19,812,587 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 17% from the average daily volume of 23,825,592 shares. The stock had previously closed at $298.06.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud scored a very large security?services expansion with Palo Alto Networks that sources say is “approaching $10 billion,” a material commercial win that should lift cloud revenue and backlog expectations. Google Cloud lands deal with Palo Alto Networks
• Positive Sentiment: Brokerage momentum: Wedbush and other analysts have recently raised targets/ratings (new Wedbush $350 target) — analyst upgrades and higher price targets are supporting buyer interest. New Analyst Forecast: $GOOGL Given $350 Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Talent win for AI: Coverage reports ~20% of Google’s 2025 AI software-engineer hires were “boomerang” ex?employees — a sign management is successfully rehiring experienced AI staff amid intense competition, which supports execution on Gemini, cloud AI products and new hardware/software initiatives. Google’s boomerang year: 20% of AI software engineers hired in 2025 were ex-employees
• Neutral Sentiment: Social/market chatter highlights AI product strength (Gemini updates) and Waymo funding talk — these narratives can lift sentiment but carry execution and valuation risk if monetization timelines slip. Opinions on AI Innovations and Waymo Funding
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical/trading signals: Power?inflow/order?flow alerts and recent intraday momentum have drawn short?term traders into GOOG, amplifying moves on news. GOOG Hits Intraday High After Key Trading Signal
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds: Mexico’s antitrust authority ordered Google to drop certain Android restrictions, and a Spanish consumer group has opened preliminary legal action over alleged data collection — these actions raise compliance, litigation and product?bundling risk in key markets. Mexico’s antitrust commission resolves Android competition case Spanish consumer group seeks to sue Google in data row
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Multiple filings show director/exec stock sales (including CEO sales disclosed) — routine for tax/planning but some investors view concentrated insider sales negatively in the short term. Alphabet insider buying and selling

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Loop Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $330.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $313.04.

Alphabet Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $289.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $234.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total transaction of $9,743,500.00. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 228,906 shares of company stock valued at $63,984,117 in the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,410 shares during the last quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% during the first quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 25,146 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,929,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 411.1% in the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 13,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after purchasing an additional 10,479 shares during the period. Capital Fund Management S.A. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter valued at $5,962,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 34.2% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 68,072 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,635,000 after purchasing an additional 17,334 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

About Alphabet

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.