Gabelli Funds LLC Sells 12,000 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Gabelli Funds LLC cut its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 423,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 12,000 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.7% of Gabelli Funds LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Gabelli Funds LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $103,085,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GOOG. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 60.9% in the second quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total value of $9,859,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near‑term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non‑defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near‑term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12‑month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI‑growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high‑profile Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short‑term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous‑vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near‑term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOG. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target (up from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $298.30 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $320.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $286.23. The stock has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year 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 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.15 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. 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 7.77%.

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.