Alphabet Inc. $GOOG is North Star Asset Management Inc.’s 6th Largest Position

North Star Asset Management Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 225,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,459 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.2% of North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $54,808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth $4,298,572,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,240,469,000 after buying an additional 7,904,434 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,927,821,000 after buying an additional 5,182,111 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 73.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 9,808,152 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,388,775,000 after buying an additional 4,154,929 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 17,547.9% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,122,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $731,331,000 after acquiring an additional 4,099,366 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,211,872 shares in the company, valued at $723,945,705.60. This represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289 over the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $343.90.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster performance and better text handling — reinforces product leadership for Gemini/search integrations and helps drive user engagement across Google services. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its AI chips (TPUs) to Meta — a direct revenue and margin-positive outcome from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is securing power supply agreements for data centers (deals with AES and Xcel), which reduces execution risk for its AI/cloud buildout and supports continued capacity expansion. Alphabet Secures Power Deals
• Positive Sentiment: South Korea approved Google’s request to export high‑precision map data, opening commercial opportunities for Google Maps and Waymo in a market previously restricted — potential revenue and product expansion tailwind. South Korea approves Google bid
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy investors continue to add to Alphabet: notable buying by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was reported — an endorsement that can support sentiment among long-term institutional investors. Druckenmiller buys Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage and buy ratings remain favorable (recent upgrades and positive notes on cloud/AI), supporting longer-term upside expectations even after concerns about spending. MarketBeat coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest updates in available feeds show anomalous/zero reporting and NaN changes — appears to be noisy data and unlikely to be driving today’s move. (Data entries flagged as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: Belgian competition authorities opened a probe into Google’s online ad pricing practices — a regulatory risk that could pressure ad margins or lead to fines/operational changes in Europe. Belgian watchdog probe
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure intensified after OpenAI raised massive funding with Amazon/Nvidia/Microsoft as backers — concentrates AI competition and could blunt parts of Google’s enterprise opportunity or pricing power. OpenAI record funding report
• Negative Sentiment: Investor cautions: critics (Michael Burry, some options trade services) have flagged Alphabet’s aggressive AI capex and warned of margin pressure — a reminder of downside risk if spending outpaces near-term monetization. Michael Burry on Google’s AI spending

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $311.43 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $321.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $282.81. The stock has a market cap of $3.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $350.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.15 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

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.