Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Thornburg Investment Management Inc.

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 513,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 18,507 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 1.6% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $124,815,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after buying an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 51.7% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after buying an additional 10,843,853 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 201.3% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,153,824,000 after acquiring an additional 4,374,542 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 16th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Canal+ signed a multi‑year deal to use Google Cloud’s generative AI across production and streaming (content recommendation and video production), a direct revenue and platform‑adoption win for Google Cloud. Canal+ taps Google’s AI for video production, content recommendation
• Positive Sentiment: Broader media interest in AI (e.g., Netflix’s AI efforts followed by Canal+) reinforces recurring‑revenue and platform opportunities for Google’s AI/ads stack. This narrative supports upside for Cloud and Ads monetization. Netflix’s AI Drive Followed by This TV Group. It Just Struck a Deal With Google.
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst upgrade is cited as pushing trading momentum higher today, lending short‑term bullish catalyst and validating near‑term expectations for Cloud/AI growth. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 2.6% Higher on Analyst Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat technical/flow analysis highlights a pullback to ~$300 as a defended support, plus continued institutional inflows and lofty analyst price targets — a constructive backdrop for investors viewing the dip as a buying opportunity. Alphabet’s Pullback May Be Opening a New Entry Point
• Neutral Sentiment: Google is expanding AI agent tooling for the Pentagon and civilian use (Agent Designer / GenAI.mil). This can drive cloud/AI spend but raises policy and reputational complexity amid legal disputes involving other AI vendors. Google deepens Pentagon AI push after Anthropic sues Trump administration
• Neutral Sentiment: Google is part of industry efforts (with Tesla and others) on grid/utilization initiatives — long‑term strategic but unlikely to move near‑term revenue materially. Google and Tesla think we’re managing the electrical grid all wrong
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s dual‑model AI strategy and deep Anthropic/OpenAI ties reinforce Azure’s competitive edge for enterprise AI workloads, representing a meaningful cloud/AI market risk for Google. Microsoft Positioned to Win AI Race With Dual-Model Strategy (GOOGL)
• Negative Sentiment: Scrutiny over Sundar Pichai’s $692M compensation package tied to unprofitable “moonshot” targets may raise governance concerns among some investors. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s new $692 million compensation package hinges on the success of two Google moonshots that aren’t making any money

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total value of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $307.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $319.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $288.33.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. 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 currently 7.77%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google’s core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google’s consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.