Cornerstone Capital Inc. Lowers Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Cornerstone Capital Inc. decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 178,840 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,937 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 4.3% of Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $43,476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Corsicana & Co. bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, S&T Bank PA increased its stake in Alphabet by 40.2% in the second quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on GOOGL shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. DA Davidson raised their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson increased their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at $508,028,012.80. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.6%

GOOGL stock opened at $306.36 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $319.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $287.62. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $349.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.