Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock Price Up 1.6% – Time to Buy?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares shot up 1.6% during trading on Friday. The company traded as high as $342.78 and last traded at $340.35. 17,372,346 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average daily volume of 20,582,852 shares. The stock had previously closed at $334.93.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Gemini 4 Argon strengthens Alphabet’s AI case. Analysts say the model has delivered top-tier results across multiple benchmarks, and its aggressive pricing could pressure rivals to reduce prices. The launch also reinforces Alphabet’s ability to leverage its own models, cloud infrastructure and AI chips. Google Turns Up AI Heat With Gemini 4 Argon
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains constructive. JPMorgan and BNP Paribas maintained bullish views and price targets near $420, implying substantial upside if Alphabet converts AI leadership into cloud growth, advertising resilience and new enterprise revenue. Alphabet’s strong margins, cash position and recent earnings momentum provide additional support. JPMorgan sets Google stock price target
• Positive Sentiment: Market conditions are helping. Alphabet shares are benefiting from gains in the S&P 500 and technology leaders, including Nvidia, Broadcom and Tesla, which are lifting sentiment toward AI-related stocks. SPY is up on TXN stock price movement
• Neutral Sentiment: Argon’s commercial impact is not yet proven. Google is initially restricting access to vetted cybersecurity organizations because of safety concerns, while investors want evidence of broad adoption and a breakout consumer AI agent. YouTube’s potential expansion into live sports rights could create engagement and subscription opportunities, but would also require significant spending. Google’s Gemini 4 Argon competes at the frontier
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and litigation risks remain. Alphabet is challenging EU orders requiring it to provide services or search data to AI and search rivals, while thousands of publishers may pursue more than $3.2 billion in damages. Investors are also monitoring heavy AI infrastructure spending, potentially weaker compute pricing and concerns that Meta’s free AI offerings could limit monetization. Alphabet challenges EU orders

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Arete Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $450.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Alphabet from $460.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Alphabet from $455.00 to $465.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $435.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $419.93.

Alphabet Stock Up 1.6%

The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $4.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.09, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $341.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $345.37.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released 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 return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%.The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $116.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly 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 fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio 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 that occurred on 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total transaction of $149,606.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at $9,125,015.20. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 441,316 shares of company stock valued at $8,648,795. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GOOG. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 369,922,502 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $130,704,718,000 after buying an additional 5,164,200 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew 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 acquiring an additional 5,208,690 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $18,093,665,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in Alphabet by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 24,595,622 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,693,281,000 after acquiring an additional 508,718 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,048,456 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,918,805,000 after acquiring an additional 517,108 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.