Ballentine Partners LLC Purchases 4,978 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 161,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,978 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 0.5% of Ballentine Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $39,347,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple firms raised price targets and maintained buy ratings (Arete to $405, New Street to $380, President Capital to $375, Daiwa to $380), which supports upside expectations from analysts. Arete Research price target New Street Research price target
• Positive Sentiment: EU antitrust regulators gave unconditional approval for Google’s $32B Wiz cybersecurity acquisition, removing a major regulatory overhang on the deal. Reuters: Wiz approval
• Positive Sentiment: Google is testing new shopping ad formats inside Search AI mode and Gemini, which could expand high-margin ad inventory and diversify monetization. PYMNTS: Shopping feature
• Positive Sentiment: Google participated in a large funding round for humanoid robotics startup Apptronik, signaling continued strategic investment in robotics/AI ecosystems. Reuters: Apptronik funding
• Neutral Sentiment: JPMorgan reiterated a Buy and other outlets (Zacks, CNBC coverage) continue to highlight Alphabet as a structural AI/cloud beneficiary — supporting longer-term conviction even as near-term volatility persists. JPMorgan reiteration
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet significantly increased bond issuance (initial $20B, later reports of >$30B) and is pursuing very long-dated debt (reports of 100‑year paper) to fund massive AI infrastructure and acquisitions — investors worry this signals heavy near-term cash burn and margin pressure from capex. Reuters: $20B bonds WSJ: 100-year bond
• Negative Sentiment: High-profile criticism and skepticism surfaced (e.g., Michael Burry commentary, media pieces suggesting 100‑year bonds reflect risk), amplifying investor concern about the financing move. Finbold: Burry comment
• Negative Sentiment: Privacy/regulatory headlines: report that Google handed personal and financial data of a student-journalist to ICE, plus an EU publishers’ complaint over AI Overviews, raise legal/regulatory risk that could pressure reputational and compliance costs. TechCrunch: data to ICE Reuters: publishers complaint

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. Mizuho raised their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Arete Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, China Renaissance lifted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $361.64.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,337,229.80. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $34,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,307 shares in the company, valued at $6,224,380. The trade was a 0.55% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 2,067,086 shares of company stock valued at $105,184,255 over the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $310.96 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.77, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00. The company’s 50-day moving average is $321.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.37.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.