First Bank & Trust Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

First Bank & Trust reduced its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 13.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,136 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,903 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 0.8% of First Bank & Trust’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 400.0% during the second quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley boosted its stake in Alphabet by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 58.7% during the 2nd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Fairman Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 121.3% during 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. Finally, University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet agreed to acquire Intersect Power for about $4.75B (plus assumed debt), securing clean energy and data-center projects to accelerate AI compute capacity — a direct strategic move to remove power bottlenecks for Google Cloud and AI workloads. Alphabet to buy data center infrastructure firm Intersect
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Google rolled out Gemini 3 Flash, reinforcing Alphabet’s AI leadership and helping investor confidence in future revenue and monetization opportunities across search, cloud, and enterprise AI. As Google Launches Gemini 3 Flash
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street and institutional backing: recent analyst upgrades and higher price targets (e.g., Wedbush raising PT to $350; multiple “buy/outperform” notes) plus heavy institutional inflows support valuation and buying interest. Alphabet price/analyst coverage summary
• Neutral Sentiment: Waymo is showing strong operational progress (miles and performance metrics), positioning Alphabet well in autonomous mobility long-term; but near-term commercialization timelines remain uncertain. Waymo and Uber set for market war
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet-backed startup Motive filed for an IPO — a positive for Alphabet’s VC arm (GV) if the offering succeeds, but limited direct near-term impact on GOOG’s core earnings. Motive files for IPO
• Negative Sentiment: Legal and regulatory overhangs: a lawsuit from a New York Times reporter alleges unauthorized use of copyrighted books to train AI models, and California regulators are reviewing a Waymo stall incident after a power outage — both add execution and litigation risk. NYT reporter sues Google over chatbot training

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.15, for a total transaction of $8,129,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,369,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,760,192.85. This trade represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,816 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.42, for a total transaction of $4,408,034.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,985 shares in the company, valued at $10,635,348.70. This trade represents a 29.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 228,906 shares of company stock worth $63,984,117. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on GOOG shares. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $313.04.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $315.68 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $328.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $292.55 and a 200 day moving average of $237.48.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 8th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.28%.

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.