Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stock Holdings Raised by First Financial Bankshares Inc

First Financial Bankshares Inc boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 725,519 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,735 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 3.6% of First Financial Bankshares Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. First Financial Bankshares Inc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $176,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth about $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 51.7% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after acquiring an additional 10,843,853 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Alphabet by 201.3% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,153,824,000 after purchasing an additional 4,374,542 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and media coverage highlighting Alphabet’s AI progress and market outperformance helped lift sentiment — multiple headlines noted the stock outpaced the market and framed Google as a top AI investment. Alphabet (GOOGL) Exceeds Market Returns: Some Facts to Consider
• Positive Sentiment: Buy-side and retail commentary continues to position Alphabet as a core AI play (search monetization + enterprise AI/Gemini), supporting the rally and investor willingness to re-rate growth expectations. You Don’t Need Polymarket to Make a Winning Bet. Just Buy This AI Stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Small-cap AI infrastructure startup news (Crafting) and other ecosystem activity remind investors that AI innovation is broadening, but these announcements have limited direct near-term impact on Alphabet’s fundamentals. Crafting Announces General Availability of Crafting for Agents and $5.5M Seed Round
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short-interest figures are effectively zero in the recent snapshot (odd data point), meaning short squeezes look unlikely to be a direct driver right now.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by Alphabet’s CEO — a disclosed sale of roughly $9.86M — can weigh on sentiment and is being noted by market participants as a near-term negative catalyst. Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sells $9,859,850.00 in Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure from Microsoft’s aggressive AI/cloud positioning (Anthropic/OpenAI partnerships, Azure demand) is a reigning concern for investors who weigh enterprise cloud share and model-agnostic infrastructure as a risk to Alphabet’s cloud/AI monetization runway.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOGL opened at $306.36 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $319.79 and a 200 day moving average of $287.62. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Alphabet from $375.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. This trade represents a 23.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company 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.