Zacks Research Has Negative Outlook of Alphabet Q4 Earnings

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Research analysts at Zacks Research decreased their Q4 2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Alphabet in a note issued to investors on Friday, May 16th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now expects that the information services provider will earn $2.26 per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $2.36. The consensus estimate for Alphabet’s current full-year earnings is $8.89 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Alphabet’s Q4 2026 earnings at $2.69 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $2.67 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $11.91 EPS.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.79. The business had revenue of $90.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $89.30 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 28.60%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.89 earnings per share.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Alphabet from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Alphabet from $209.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Benchmark restated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and five have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.94.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $167.43 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $160.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.77. Alphabet has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $208.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.36%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.53, for a total transaction of $33,106.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,293,285.89. This trade represents a 2.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,824 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.43, for a total value of $529,302.32. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,815,948.32. This represents a 15.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 179,324 shares of company stock valued at $30,153,353. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,166,070,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,622,943,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 18,562.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,323,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,237,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,246,573 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 9.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after acquiring an additional 9,243,959 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

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.