Alphabet breaks $1 trillion market cap for first time ever

REUTERS/Brandon Wade/File Photo

• Google parent company Alphabet on Thursday hit a $1 trillion market valuation for the first time ever.
• Alphabet joins Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon in a small group of US companies that have reached the milestone. Microsoft and Apple are still valued at more than $1 trillion, but Amazon is not. 
• The record for Alphabet comes shortly after Sundar Pichai became CEO in a historic leadership shift. Wall Street analysts have been bullish on the change. 
• Watch Alphabet trade live on Markets Insider.

Google parent company Alphabet hit a $1 trillion market valuation today for the first time ever, becoming the fourth US company to reach the milestone. 

Shares of the company gained as much as 0.8% Thursday to achieve the market capitalization. 

Apple was the first US company to hit the milestone market valuation in 2018. Since, Microsoft and Amazon have also touched $1 trillion market values. Apple and Microsoft are still valued at more than $1 trillion, but Amazon has since fallen below the number. 

The stock gains and consequent record valuation for Alphabet come amid increased calls for online privacy and antitrust regulation that have proven challenging for the business. But despite those concerns, Alphabet and shares of other technology companies have continued to climb, solidifying their spots as leaders in the US market and economy. 

Alphabet’s record market valuation also comes after a historical change in leadership at the company. In December, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced that they would step back from the company, which they founded in 1998. Sundar Pichai took on the top role and is now the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. 

The change at the top was cheered by Wall Street analysts and in particular Michael Levine of Pivotal Research, who increased his Alphabet price target to $1,650 from $1,455 and upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold” on the leadership change. 

Having Pichai at the helm of Alphabet offers “the most optionality for multiple expansion for the stock we have seen in years,” Levine wrote in a note January 6. 

There’s also been recent optimism around Google Cloud, a competitor for Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud services. While Google Cloud is still behind its biggest rivals, the business is poised to go from $8 billion in cloud revenue to nearly $17 billion in 2021, according to Lloyd Walmsley of Deutsche Bank. 

Alphabet has gained 8.3% year-to-date through Thursday’s close.Markets Insider