Krane Funds Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Krane Funds Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 196.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,745 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,773 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 0.1% of Krane Funds Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Krane Funds Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter worth $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $53,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in 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 worth $57,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, S&T Bank PA boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094. Company insiders own 11.55% 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

GOOGL stock opened at $306.36 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $319.79 and a 200-day simple 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 earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

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.