Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Capital Investment Counsel LLC

Capital Investment Counsel LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 62,064 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,203 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 2.2% of Capital Investment Counsel LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Capital Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $15,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its Tensor Processing Units to Meta, validating TPU demand and directly boosting Google Cloud/infra revenue potential. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage highlights accelerating Google Cloud growth, heavy AI-driven demand and a large backlog (~$240B cited), supporting faster revenue expansion and margin leverage from cloud services. AI Push Provides a Boost to GOOGL’s Cloud Business
• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster speeds and better text rendering — another visible product that drives user engagement and showcases Gemini-era AI improvements. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Longer-term optionality from stakes and partnerships: coverage points to Alphabet’s meaningful Anthropic stake (equity upside + Google Cloud infra revenue) and other private holdings that could materially boost valuation if monetized. Alphabet’s Quiet Edge: The Hidden Assets Powering Its Run
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo is expanding testing to Chicago and Charlotte as it scales autonomous ride‑hailing — a revenue diversification story that supports the long-term “Other Bets” growth narrative. Waymo to begin testing in Chicago and Charlotte
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet folded robotics software unit Intrinsic into Google — operational consolidation that may speed commercialization but has limited near-term revenue impact. Former Alphabet ‘moonshot’ robotics company Intrinsic is folding into Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Google reported disruption of a China-linked hacker network — positive for security posture and enterprise trust but unlikely to move near-term fundamentals. Google disrupts Chinese-linked hackers
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulatory pressure: Google is testing a new search layout to show rivals’ vertical results more prominently in Europe to try to avoid a fine — a change that could reduce some direct monetization in affected result types if broadly adopted. Google to test changes to search results as EU fine looms
• Negative Sentiment: Minor regional/legal friction: a small Russian fine was reported for distributing VPN apps — reputational/regulatory noise but immaterial to global results. Russia fines Google for distributing VPN services
• Negative Sentiment: Market signals: there were reports of insider selling and mixed analyst flows (price-target moves), which can prompt short-term profit-taking after a long GOOGL run. Alphabet Shares Down After Insider Selling

Alphabet Trading Down 1.8%

GOOGL stock opened at $307.38 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.43, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $320.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $281.45. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total value of $314,001.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 9,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,337,229.80. This represents a 8.60% 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 hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total transaction of $184,038.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. This represents a 2.83% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GOOGL. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $310.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.57.

Alphabet Profile

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.