Clarius Group LLC Cuts Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Clarius Group LLC decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,122 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,844 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 0.7% of Clarius Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $12,904,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,240,469,000 after acquiring an additional 7,904,434 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Alphabet by 73.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 9,808,152 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,388,775,000 after purchasing an additional 4,154,929 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $678,198,000. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $455,745,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $360.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Truist Financial set a $350.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $345.71.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $294.46 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. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $350.15. The business has a fifty day moving average of $309.68 and a 200-day moving average of $296.30. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.13.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. The trade was a 14.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,101,227 shares of company stock valued at $114,969,050. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Gemma 4, a new open-source AI model family that reinforces Google’s AI leadership and developer ecosystem—positive for long‑term cloud and AI monetization. Google Introduces Gemma 4
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary highlights Google’s TurboQuant memory/compression advances as a potential efficiency and performance edge for large models — this can improve margins on AI workloads over time. Google’s TurboQuant Breakthrough
• Positive Sentiment: Needham and other firms continue to voice bullishness (Needham reiterated a Buy with a high price target), keeping analyst sentiment supportive for upside once market focus returns to fundamentals. Needham Reiterates Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo kept an Overweight stance on Alphabet but trimmed price targets — signals confidence in the story but slightly cooler near‑term expectations. Wells Fargo Keeps Overweight, Cuts PTs
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market flows and ETF activity (SPY/QQQ/VTI moves) have amplified Alphabet’s intraday swings — i.e., macro risk‑on/off and large‑cap index moves remain an execution risk for short‑term price action. SPY/ETF Context
• Negative Sentiment: Amie Thuener O’Toole, Alphabet’s principal accounting officer, is leaving to become Broadcom’s CFO — the loss of a senior finance leader creates short‑term execution and transition risk. Broadcom Taps Alphabet Executive as CFO (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: Semianalysis’ CEO warned that Google’s free cash flow could be driven to near zero next year by heavy AI capex — a reminder that aggressive infrastructure spending may pressure near‑term cash flow and valuation multiples. Semianalysis CEO: FCF Hit by AI CapEx
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by senior executives (recent sales reported for John Kent Walker and others) can weigh on sentiment, especially with elevated market sensitivity to insider activity. Insider Sale: John Kent Walker

About Alphabet

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.