Close Asset Management Ltd Sells 22,364 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Close Asset Management Ltd decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 8.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 256,752 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 22,364 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.4% of Close Asset Management Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Close Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $62,524,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lansing Street Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 82.1% in the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 3,978 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $969,000 after buying an additional 1,793 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 1.9% in the third quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 28,554 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,954,000 after acquiring an additional 526 shares during the period. DNB Asset Management AS raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% during the third quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 969,535 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $236,130,000 after acquiring an additional 19,194 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 3.2% during the third quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 207,385 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,513,000 after acquiring an additional 6,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weaver Consulting Group lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.8% during the third quarter. Weaver Consulting Group now owns 2,924 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $712,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $311.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $321.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $283.36. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $350.15. The firm has a market cap of $3.77 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The firm 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 quarterly revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.15 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total value of $9,877,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares in the company, valued at $856,605,814.08. This represents a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. 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 Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster performance and better text handling — reinforces product leadership for Gemini/search integrations and helps drive user engagement across Google services. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its AI chips (TPUs) to Meta — a direct revenue and margin-positive outcome from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is securing power supply agreements for data centers (deals with AES and Xcel), which reduces execution risk for its AI/cloud buildout and supports continued capacity expansion. Alphabet Secures Power Deals
• Positive Sentiment: South Korea approved Google’s request to export high‑precision map data, opening commercial opportunities for Google Maps and Waymo in a market previously restricted — potential revenue and product expansion tailwind. South Korea approves Google bid
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy investors continue to add to Alphabet: notable buying by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was reported — an endorsement that can support sentiment among long-term institutional investors. Druckenmiller buys Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage and buy ratings remain favorable (recent upgrades and positive notes on cloud/AI), supporting longer-term upside expectations even after concerns about spending. MarketBeat coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest updates in available feeds show anomalous/zero reporting and NaN changes — appears to be noisy data and unlikely to be driving today’s move. (Data entries flagged as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: Belgian competition authorities opened a probe into Google’s online ad pricing practices — a regulatory risk that could pressure ad margins or lead to fines/operational changes in Europe. Belgian watchdog probe
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure intensified after OpenAI raised massive funding with Amazon/Nvidia/Microsoft as backers — concentrates AI competition and could blunt parts of Google’s enterprise opportunity or pricing power. OpenAI record funding report
• Negative Sentiment: Investor cautions: critics (Michael Burry, some options trade services) have flagged Alphabet’s aggressive AI capex and warned of margin pressure — a reminder of downside risk if spending outpaces near-term monetization. Michael Burry on Google’s AI spending

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Pivotal Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 target price (up from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

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.