What's Going On With Google Parent Alphabet Stock Friday?

Alphabet Inc. GOOGL shares are trading higher on Friday after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Thursday after the market closed.What To Know: Alphabet reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.81, beating analysts’ estimate of $2.01. In addition, the company reported sales of $90.23 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $88.87 billion and representing a 12% year-over-year growth.Alphabet attributed the revenue growth to strong performance in Google Search and other, YouTube ads, Google subscriptions, devices and platforms and Google Cloud.The company broke down revenue further. It said Google Services revenue rose 10% to $77.3 billion, driven by higher activity in Search & Other, subscriptions, platforms and devices and YouTube ads. Additionally, Google Cloud revenue grew 28% to $12.3 billion, driven by growth in Google Cloud Platform products and AI infrastructure and solutions.Alphabet also increased its quarterly dividend by 5% to 21 cents per share.Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, said, "We're pleased with our strong Q1 results, which reflect healthy growth and momentum across the business. Underpinning this growth is our unique full stack approach to AI. This quarter was super exciting as we rolled out Gemini 2.5, our most intelligent AI model, which is achieving breakthroughs in performance and is an extraordinary foundation for our future innovation. Search saw continued strong growth, boosted by the engagement we're seeing with features like AI Overviews, which now has 1.5 billion users per month. Driven by YouTube and Google One, we surpassed 270 million paid subscriptions. And Cloud grew rapidly with significant demand for our solutions."Analyst Changes: Following the earnings report, multiple analysts issued price target adjustments.Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion maintained an Overweight rating on Alphabet and raised the price target from $185 to $195.B of A Securities analyst Justin Post maintained a Buy rating on Alphabet and raised the price target from $185 to $200.Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski maintained an Equal-Weight rating on Alphabet and raised the price target from $167 to $175.Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett maintained a Neutral rating on Alphabet and lowered the price target from $205 to $189.Related Link: Bitcoin Fundamentally Decoupled From US Tech Stocks, BlackRock’s Jay Jacobs SaysGOOGL Price Action: At the time of writing, Alphabet shares are trading 2.75% higher at $163.71, according to data from Benzinga Pro.Image: via Shutterstock