Zacks Research Has Bullish Outlook for Alphabet Q1 Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Equities research analysts at Zacks Research increased their Q1 2025 earnings estimates for Alphabet in a research note issued on Tuesday, February 25th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now forecasts that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $1.98 for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $1.96. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.90 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q2 2025 earnings at $2.05 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $2.12 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $8.51 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $2.22 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $2.27 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $2.59 EPS, FY2026 earnings at $9.80 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $11.27 EPS.

GOOGL has been the subject of several other reports. Wedbush increased their target price on Alphabet from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $172.73 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $191.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $130.66 and a 12-month high of $207.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.94%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 37,134 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.02, for a total transaction of $6,870,532.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 282,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,329,576.64. The trade was a 11.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ruth Porat sold 17,690 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.48, for a total value of $3,245,761.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,449,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $265,914,995.28. This trade represents a 1.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,299 shares of company stock worth $25,055,751 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,383,677,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 248,416,916 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $47,025,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,100,902 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 43,005.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,743,594 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,086,250,000 after purchasing an additional 18,700,111 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 69,616,854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,178,470,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135,430 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,033,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,635,878,000 after purchasing an additional 10,037,685 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.