Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Holdings Lowered by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP trimmed its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,541,016 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 596,316 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 1.0% of First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,347,021,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $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 worth $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the second quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after buying an additional 503,306 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. New Street Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. UBS Group set a $348.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total value of $184,038.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 20,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. This trade represents a 2.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google closed its large acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz, bolstering Google Cloud’s security capabilities and signaling continued investment in cloud/AI — a strategic positive for long‑term cloud revenue growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New commercial wins for Google Cloud underline enterprise demand for its AI stack — Canal+ struck a multi‑year deal to use Google Cloud generative AI for production and recommendations. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage and commentaries are constructive: MarketBeat highlights a technical entry point after a pullback and many analysts still rate GOOGL as a buy; Zacks cites earnings growth and price strength as reasons to watch the stock. These viewpoints help support demand from long‑term and institutional investors. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Google is reorganizing GFiber into a new independent venture with outside partners (Stonepeak/Astound); Alphabet becomes a minority owner — this recycles capital and reduces direct operational exposure, which is strategically neutral to positive but may have limited near‑term earnings impact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent short‑interest data in these feeds show zero or NaN values and are not meaningful — no clear short‑squeeze or covering signal from these reports. (Data appears erroneous.)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory pressure in key markets is rising: UK regulators have issued warnings and deadlines to tech firms on child safety online, adding potential compliance costs and uncertainty for large platforms. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary flags that Google’s AI leadership is being tested by competitors and market expectations — any signs of slowing AI monetization or execution stoke near‑term investor anxiety. Read More.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.7%

GOOGL opened at $303.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $319.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $288.58. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (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. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

About Alphabet

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.