Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Advisors Capital Management LLC

Advisors Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 517,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 15,209 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.6% of Advisors Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $126,127,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Briaud Financial Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total value of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at $856,605,814.08. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total value of $184,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,624 shares in the company, valued at $6,325,999.52. This represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on GOOG. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $360.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. DZ Bank upgraded Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $314.90 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $320.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $279.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $350.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted 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 $2.59 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and brokers have raised price targets and highlighted AI/cloud upside (UBS, Canaccord), citing Gemini adoption and generative‑AI capex that could add meaningful cloud revenue. UBS generative AI capex note
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet committed to a major $15B America‑India Connect initiative and announced partnerships (Zillow, Sea) that expand Gemini/Cloud into verticals — positive for long‑term cloud/ads monetization and market reach. America-India Connect announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Notable institutional buying from hedge funds (e.g., Appaloosa/Tepper, Altimeter, Viking) signals conviction in Alphabet’s AI/Cloud thesis and can support the stock through execution milestones. Appaloosa increases stake
• Neutral Sentiment: Product demos (Gemini AI coach, music features) and consumer launches (Pixel device with AI features) improve user engagement and positioning but are not immediate revenue drivers. Gemini demo on CNBC
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data for February shows anomalies (zeros/NaN) and provides no clear bearish signal at present; treat the statistic cautiously until reconciled.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: senior execs disclosed sizable sales (Sundar Pichai, John Kent Walker), which markets often view as a modest near‑term negative signal despite normal tax/liquidity reasons. Pichai sale filing Walker sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/IP risk: prosecutors have charged engineers in an alleged scheme to steal Google trade secrets and pass files abroad — reputational and security concerns that could invite regulatory scrutiny. Trade-secrets indictment
• Negative Sentiment: Execution/supply risks: DeepMind’s CEO warned that memory‑chip shortages constrain agentic AI research/deployment, which could slow rollout timing or raise costs for compute‑intensive initiatives. DeepMind chip shortage comments
• Negative Sentiment: Several institutional investors disclosed trims (Pershing Square, Longview, others). Broad portfolio rebalancing can weigh on near‑term sentiment even if longer‑term AI momentum remains. Pershing Square trim

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.