New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 227,710 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,961,677 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 227,710 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.9% of New York State Common Retirement Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,451,966,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. IFS Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 400.0% in the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on GOOG. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Mizuho set a $325.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $330.83.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat on revenue and EPS with accelerating Search and Cloud growth — Search ~17% YoY, Cloud growth near 48% and a doubled Cloud backlog point to durable demand and stronger monetization. Alphabet: Full Valuation, Full Speed
• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and Gemini deployments (e.g., Liberty Global, Humana) validate Google Cloud monetization and AI product traction. Liberty Global-Google Cloud deal
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo’s big $16B funding round and $126B valuation increase Alphabet’s optionality outside ads and support longer-term upside. Waymo funding
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades, higher price targets and continued institutional buying reflect confidence in AI/Search/Cloud upside. Analyst coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Management declined to discuss specific AI partnerships (e.g., Google-Apple Siri deal) on the earnings call, leaving partnership details uncertain for investors. TechCrunch: Google-Apple AI deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and pre/post-earnings positioning implied a sizable move; next direction likely depends on how investors weigh capex vs. revenue/margin trends. Earnings preview/prediction markets
• Negative Sentiment: The $175–$185B 2026 capex guide was the primary negative catalyst — far above Street expectations and seen as a near-term earnings/cash-flow risk that sparked selling pressure. Reuters: capex guidance
• Negative Sentiment: Investors also noted a slight YouTube ad revenue softness and the scale of AI spending, which together raised near-term execution and margin questions. Invezz: post-earnings dip
• Negative Sentiment: Insider and some institutional selling (CAO SEC filing noted) adds to short-term sentiment pressure around a high valuation. SEC insider filing

Alphabet Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $333.34 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $322.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $269.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $350.15. The firm has a market cap of $4.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.15 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total value of $202,512.00. Following the sale, the director owned 21,224 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,163,524.48. The trade was a 2.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total value of $10,637,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,211,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,945,705.60. The trade was a 1.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,037,964 shares of company stock valued at $95,259,727 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.