Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Reaches New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $335.00 to $370.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $340.49 and last traded at $335.97, with a volume of 33457810 shares. The stock had previously closed at $331.86.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on GOOGL. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. CIBC raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet to $315.00 in a report on Monday, October 20th. Loop Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $260.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Melius Research increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.45, for a total transaction of $31,971.90. Following the sale, the director owned 18,205 shares in the company, valued at $5,706,357.25. This represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,206,872.04. The trade was a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 189,309 shares of company stock worth $57,724,770. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Major strategic wins for Gemini — Apple has chosen Google’s Gemini as the foundation for next?generation Siri and broader device integrations, giving Alphabet unmatched distribution and a potential licensing revenue stream that underpins the recent rally. Why Apple Chose Google to Power the Future of AI
• Positive Sentiment: Product commercialization accelerating — Google launched a Personal Intelligence beta in the Gemini app (and is rolling Gemini features into Gmail), signaling faster product rollouts and clearer paths to monetize AI across Google’s services. Google launches Personal Intelligence in Gemini app
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and valuation milestone — Alphabet surpassed a $4 trillion market cap and received buy?side bullishness (including a Bank of America price target raise), which supports further multiple expansion and momentum chasing. Alphabet Tops $4 Trillion Valuation
• Neutral Sentiment: Supply chain / hardware moves — Reports Google will develop and manufacture high?end phones in Vietnam this year; long term this can diversify supply chains but it’s early and capex/timing make the near?term impact modest. Google to develop, manufacture smartphones in Vietnam
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector dynamics — Articles on data?infrastructure winners (e.g., Pure Storage) and Microsoft’s retail AI moves highlight rising demand for data centers and competition across the AI stack; these trends are broadly supportive for Alphabet’s cloud/AI TAM but also signal intensifying competition and higher capital intensity. Best Growth Stocks to Buy in 2026
• Negative Sentiment: Power and grid bottlenecks — Google executives say U.S. electrical transmission constraints and decade?plus wait times to connect new data centers are the biggest obstacle to scaling, which could slow capacity expansion and raise deployment/capex risk. Google says US transmission system is biggest challenge
• Negative Sentiment: App?store / reputational pressure — A coalition is urging Google to remove X and Grok from app stores, creating potential regulatory/PR friction around content moderation and platform responsibilities that could lead to policy scrutiny or compliance costs. Women’s groups call on Apple, Google to drop X and Grok

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.3% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,546,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $448,684,000 after purchasing an additional 56,295 shares during the period. Moment Partners LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after buying an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Welch Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,325,000 after buying an additional 2,467 shares during the period. Brooktree Capital Management acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $352,000. Finally, Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,277,000 after buying an additional 7,180 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.0%

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $309.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $252.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company has a market capitalization of $4.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. 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 is 8.28%.

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.