Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Westpac Banking Corp

Westpac Banking Corp lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 250,640 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 12,604 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 5.0% of Westpac Banking Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $72,074,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 887,209 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $277,696,000 after acquiring an additional 93,293 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 89,299 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $25,679,000 after acquiring an additional 2,269 shares in the last quarter. Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd as trustee for Retail Employees Superannuation Trust acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $28,902,000. Private Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,717 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,736,000 after acquiring an additional 2,678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co now owns 118,966 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,236,000 after purchasing an additional 17,415 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are increasingly viewed as credible alternatives to Nvidia chips. That could reduce Google’s dependence on external suppliers and create a potential external chip-revenue opportunity. Alphabet and Amazon custom AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlights Alphabet’s record quarter, strong Google Cloud growth, Gemini adoption and enterprise AI demand. Analysts and value-focused investors continue to view GOOGL as comparatively inexpensive among large technology and AI companies. Alphabet AI investment and valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Google is reportedly supporting a $15 billion Anthropic data-center project with chips and financial guarantees, while Oracle is expanding its partnership to bring Gemini models to enterprise applications. These initiatives could drive Google Cloud demand and strengthen Alphabet’s AI ecosystem. Anthropic data center backed by Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet’s reported quarterly earnings and revenue beat consensus estimates by wide margins, supporting the fundamental case, although investors remain focused on whether AI growth will translate into sufficient cash returns.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet withdrew its Google Earth AI image-generation feature only one day after launch following criticism that fabricated imagery could spread misinformation. The quick reversal limits immediate product risk but raises questions about AI governance and rollout discipline. Google Earth AI feature withdrawn
• Negative Sentiment: The AI buildout is becoming increasingly expensive. Alphabet is targeting up to $205 billion in 2026 capital expenditures, while rising memory and infrastructure costs are pressuring cash flow and increasing future depreciation. AI buildout costs and cash flow
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales were small relative to the executives’ remaining holdings, but they provide a modest sentiment headwind. Separately, investor-law-firm investigations could create additional legal and reputational overhang. Alphabet director stock sale

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. New Street Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Arete Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $405.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Dbs Bank upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $460.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $390.00 target price (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $419.86.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total transaction of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This trade represents a 10.68% 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, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total transaction of $3,832,277.26. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock worth $16,255,540 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.61% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $356.13 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.82 and a 12 month high of $408.61. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $4.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $339.30.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 51.32% and a net margin of 54.77%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

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.