William Blair Issues Positive Forecast for Alphabet Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Equities research analysts at William Blair upped their Q1 2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Alphabet in a report released on Tuesday, February 4th. William Blair analyst R. Schackart now forecasts that the information services provider will post earnings of $1.99 per share for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $1.98. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.02 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q4 2025 earnings at $2.36 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $8.64 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $9.66 EPS.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on GOOG. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Alphabet from $182.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.13.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $193.31 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $192.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.03. The company has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Alphabet has a twelve month low of $131.55 and a twelve month high of $208.70.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in Alphabet by 287.9% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 225 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.80, for a total transaction of $284,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,824 shares in the company, valued at $4,142,195.20. This represents a 6.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total value of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,007,191.15. The trade was a 5.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

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.