Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 1,050 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL traded down $3.23 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $307.69. The company had a trading volume of 19,971,490 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,376,390. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $349.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 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. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $318.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $291.85.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Symmetry Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,476,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Members Trust Co grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,014,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 7,952 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,489,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Insight 2811 Inc. now owns 3,124 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $978,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, LJI Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. LJI Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,265 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,274,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Top AI and strategy hires strengthen DeepMind execution — Jasjeet Sekhon, Bridgewater’s chief scientist, is joining Google’s DeepMind as chief strategy officer, boosting AI talent and strategy depth that supports product leadership and monetization opportunities. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud/security M&A expands enterprise angle — Alphabet’s acquisition of Wiz strengthens Google Cloud’s security stack, a key competitive lever vs. AWS/Azure and a driver of higher-margin, enterprise revenue. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Defense relationships could open government revenue paths — reporting says Google has rebuilt ties with the Pentagon, which could translate to lucrative contracts if political headwinds remain manageable. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: AI product momentum pressures rivals — Google’s Stitch redesign (AI → UI generation) is already rattling competitors like Adobe, signaling product strength that could help user growth and ad/cloud adoption. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Regulatory concession may reduce UK friction — Google said it will build search controls allowing sites to opt out of generative-AI features, a move that could blunt UK CMA concerns but may limit feature reach. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Supply-chain / infrastructure sourcing discussions — Google is in talks with Chinese firms for data-center liquid-cooling equipment; could reduce capex cost or invite scrutiny depending on geopolitics. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Large planned capex raises near-term margin and valuation questions — Alphabet’s plan to invest up to ~$185B by 2026 and higher AI-driven capex fuels concerns about margin pressure and whether current P/E already prices in that spending. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation debate persists despite upbeat fundamentals — analysts remain optimistic, but some write-ups flag Alphabet’s ~25–29x P/E and rising capex as limiting near-term upside vs. expectations. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Tigress Financial set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. New Street Research raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.18.

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.