Wedbush Weighs in on Alphabet’s Q1 Earnings (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Analysts at Wedbush raised their Q1 2025 earnings estimates for Alphabet in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now expects that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $2.04 for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $2.03. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $220.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.02 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q3 2025 earnings at $2.30 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.49 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $8.99 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $10.02 EPS.

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

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. China Renaissance upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Roth Mkm raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $206.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.62.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $191.60 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95. Alphabet has a 1 year low of $130.66 and a 1 year high of $207.05.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.67, for a total transaction of $3,975,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,061,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.41, for a total transaction of $232,950.47. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 23,515 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Bennett Selby Investments LP lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,354 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 1,293 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,845 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,864,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $457,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 7,527 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,425,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Alphabet

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.