Wedbush Has Pessimistic Outlook of Alphabet Q2 Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – Wedbush lowered their Q2 2025 earnings per share estimates for Alphabet in a research report issued on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush analyst S. Devitt now expects that the information services provider will post earnings per share of $2.16 for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $2.17. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $220.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.02 per share.

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird restated an “outperform” rating and set a $205.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut 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. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Alphabet from $232.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $217.00 target price (up from $215.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.62.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $191.60 on Friday. Alphabet has a fifty-two week low of $130.66 and a fifty-two week high of $207.05. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $190.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 25.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.99.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 31.66% and a net margin of 27.74%.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. LMR Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 518.8% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 36.1% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 245 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 2,061,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,259,266.02. The trade was a 1.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total transaction of $3,239,868.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,471,620.22. The trade was a 27.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 89,529 shares of company stock valued at $16,600,078. 11.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 10.61%.

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.