Google Engineer Charged with Insider Trading

Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst

Source: Yahoo Finance

Updated: 5 hours ago

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Source: Yahoo Finance

Insider Trading Charges: The U.S. Justice Department has charged Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo with using insider information to manipulate bets on the prediction market Polymarket, earning $1.2 million in profits, highlighting a serious threat to market integrity.
High-Risk Bets: Spagnuolo placed a bet on November 27 that indie pop musician D4vd would top Google's most-searched list, despite the market assigning a near-zero probability to this outcome, revealing his misuse of internal information and raising concerns about regulatory oversight in prediction markets.
Violation of Company Policy: Google stated that Spagnuolo's actions constitute a serious breach of company policy, leading to his suspension, which indicates the company's zero-tolerance stance on insider trading and may impact its reputation among the public and investors.
Legal Consequences: U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton emphasized the commitment to prosecuting corporate insiders who profit from confidential business information, indicating that the government will continue to intensify its crackdown on insider trading, potentially leading to stricter market regulations.

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Analyst Views on GOOGL

Wall Street analysts forecast GOOGL stock price to fall

33 Analyst Rating

26 Buy

7 Hold

0 Sell

Strong Buy

Current: 388.880

Low

305.00

Averages

374.25

High

400.00

Current: 388.880

Low

305.00

Averages

374.25

High

400.00

Morgan Stanley

Overweight

maintain

$375

2026-05-20

Reason

Morgan Stanley

Price Target

$375

AI Analysis

2026-05-20

maintain

Overweight

Reason

Morgan Stanley notes I/O 2026 showcased new, more efficient models, along with agentic offerings across commerce, travel and daily life. At the event, Google introduced its personal agent, known as Gemini Spark, which will roll out across the Gemini app that now has 900M-plus monthly active users, Search, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and other Google apps, notes the analyst, who adds \"agentic sparks are set to fly with GOOGL lighting the torch.\" The firm keeps an Overweight rating and $375 price target on Alphabet shares following the I/O kickoff.

Wells Fargo

NULL

Overweight

maintain

$427 -> $435

2026-05-20

Reason

Wells Fargo

Price Target

$427 -> $435

2026-05-20

maintain

NULL

Overweight

Reason

Wells Fargo raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $435 from $427 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm sees market confidence improving in companies monetizing compute investments directly through cloud business driven by combo of accelerating cloud revenues, stable-to-improving margins and rapidly rising backlogs.

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About GOOGL

Alphabet Inc. is a holding company. The Company's segments include Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. The Google Services segment includes products and services such as ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. The Google Cloud segment includes infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers. Its Other Bets segment is engaged in the sale of healthcare-related services and Internet services. Its Google Cloud provides enterprise-ready cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. Google Cloud Platform provides access to solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, including its AI infrastructure, Vertex AI platform, and Gemini for Google Cloud; cybersecurity, and data and analytics. Google Workspace includes cloud-based communication and collaboration tools for enterprises, such as Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Meet.

About the author

Emily J. Thompson

Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.

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