NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 16:36 ET — After-hours
- Alphabet’s Class C shares were down 0.2% after hours at about $313.80, after trading between $312.34 and $315.37 in the regular session.
- Citizens raised its price target on Alphabet to $385 from $340, pointing to AI-driven gains in Google Search engagement. Investing.com South Africa
- An SEC filing showed Alphabet’s top lawyer sold Class C shares under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plan. SEC
Alphabet’s Class C shares (GOOG) edged down 0.2% in after-hours trading on Wednesday to $313.80, after a muted year-end session that left the stock inside a $312.34 to $315.37 range. Investing.com South Africa
The late-day drift came as investors digested a fresh Wall Street target hike and looked past it toward a bigger near-term question: whether Google’s AI-infused search experience can translate into faster query growth and steady advertising demand in 2026.
That matters because Alphabet’s 2025 rally has made the stock a bellwether for the “AI trade” in mega-cap tech, and the company’s next earnings report will be the first full read on holiday-quarter advertising and cloud demand after a year of heavy AI investment.
Citizens analyst Andrew Boone raised his price target on Alphabet to $385 from $340 on Wednesday. “We view AI search as a tailwind near term for query growth,” Boone wrote, citing higher engagement tied to features such as AI Mode and AI Overviews. Barron’s
Boone’s new target implies roughly 23% upside from Wednesday’s after-hours price. Barron’s also cited bullish calls from TD Cowen’s John Blackledge and Evercore ISI’s Mark Mahaney, with price targets of $350 and $325, respectively. Barron’s
Separately, a Form 4 filing showed John Kent Walker, Alphabet’s president of global affairs and chief legal officer, sold a total of 17,829 Class C shares on Dec. 30 at weighted average prices around $314 to $317. The filing said the sales were made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a pre-arranged program companies use to automate trades and reduce the risk of trading on inside information. SEC
Broader tape conditions were not supportive for big tech into the close. Wall Street finished the final session of 2025 lower, with the Nasdaq down 0.76% and declines in the technology sector weighing on the indexes, Reuters reported. Reuters
Alphabet’s after-hours move tracked a softer tone across other mega-caps and the Nasdaq-100 proxy fund. Microsoft, Apple and Meta were also lower on the day, and the Invesco QQQ Trust fell about 0.8%.
Traders are watching whether Alphabet can hold above the session low near $312 and push back through $315, the day’s high-water mark, as liquidity returns in early January.
The next swing factor is fundamentals. Investors are expected to focus on Google Search advertising trends in the fourth quarter, YouTube ad demand, and whether Google Cloud can keep growing fast enough to offset rising AI-related costs and capital spending.
Alphabet also heads into 2026 with competition in AI-powered search and assistants intensifying, making engagement metrics and ad monetization signals central to the narrative around the stock’s valuation after a strong year.
