Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Financial Strategies Group Inc.

Financial Strategies Group Inc. lessened its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 22.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 48,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 13,876 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.3% of Financial Strategies Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Financial Strategies Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,910,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the second 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 grew 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 worth $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Horrell Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 100.0% in the second quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.5%

Alphabet stock opened at $323.10 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $350.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $322.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $271.38.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Mizuho set a $325.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $315.00 to $400.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.47.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat: Alphabet reported higher‑than‑expected revenue and EPS, Google Cloud grew ~48% YoY and backlog jumped to roughly $240B — proof of strong AI demand underpinning long‑term growth. Alphabet Crushes Earnings — MarketBeat
• Positive Sentiment: Product and ecosystem wins: Gemini adoption and enterprise traction (large token/API usage) are driving monetization across Search, YouTube and Cloud; Waymo is also using Google’s Genie‑3 model for virtual training — signals that AI investments are translating into product advantage. Waymo Taps Google’s Genie 3 — TipRanks
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst view is broadly positive but mixed on valuation: several price‑target raises and buy/overweight ratings highlight conviction in AI/cloud upside, while some firms flag a hold rating because of aggressive capex and near‑term margin pressure. New Analyst Forecast $395 — QuiverQuant
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate moves: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend and continues to convert AI investments into subscriptions and ad monetization — long‑term positives, but limited near‑term impact on share price.
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx shock: management guided roughly $175–185B in 2026 CapEx (nearly double 2025), which spooked investors because it pushes spending and capital intensity into the spotlight and raises near‑term return uncertainty. That guidance is the primary reason shares fell today. Alphabet Resets the Bar for AI Spending — CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Insider & fund selling: recent insider sales and public fund trimming (and some institutional position reductions) add selling pressure and amplify short‑term downside risk. Stock Down on Insider Selling — AmericanBankingNews
• Negative Sentiment: Policy & reputational risks: a proposed bill to regulate data‑center interconnection/charges and internal employee protests over government cloud contracts could raise operating costs or create reputational/headwind risks for data‑center expansion. Power for the People Act S.3682 — QuiverQuant Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services — NYTimes

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $34,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,224,380. This represents a 0.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total transaction of $314,001.15. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,337,229.80. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 2,070,464 shares of company stock valued at $106,153,077 in the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Company 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.