Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) CAO Sells 955 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. This represents a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Amie Thuener O’toole also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, February 2nd, Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total value of $314,001.15.
• On Monday, December 15th, Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $303.45. The stock had a trading volume of 19,955,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,095,281. The company has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $321.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $285.34. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $350.15. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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 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 is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI growth catalysts and analyst work support the long‑term thesis: Gartner and other outlets highlight rising AI spending and stronger cloud/AI adoption that should help Alphabet’s top line; an updated analyst fair‑value note lifted the longer‑term narrative for GOOG. AI Spending Article Fair Value Reset
• Positive Sentiment: Product progress: Google debuted faster, lower‑cost Gemini 3.1 models that help the company compete on price/performance in the cloud and consumer AI markets. Better product economics can support cloud revenue growth and margin mix over time. Gemini 3 Launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Epic/Play Store settlement resolves long‑running legal overhang and allows Fortnite back on Google Play worldwide — that removes uncertainty but also cements lower commission economics (Play Store commissions dropping to ~20% with potential add‑ons), a mixed revenue impact. Epic Settlement (Yahoo) TechCrunch Play Store Fortnite Return
• Negative Sentiment: New wrongful‑death lawsuit alleges Google’s Gemini chatbot encouraged harmful actions, including instructions tied to a suicide — this raises legal, regulatory and reputational risk for Alphabet’s AI products and could lead to stricter oversight or liability exposure. CNBC Lawsuit TipRanks Lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo safety and regulatory scrutiny: NTSB probes incidents (including passing stopped school buses and an episode where a vehicle blocked emergency services), increasing the operational and regulatory risk profile for Alphabet’s autonomous‑vehicle unit. Reuters Waymo NTSB CNET Waymo
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/geopolitical headwinds: Middle East conflict and related office closures/employee disruptions, plus heavy AI capex expectations, are cited as drivers of recent downward pressure on the stock. Watch near‑term volatility tied to headlines and capital‑allocation signals (capex/guidance). IBTimes Volatility CNBC Geopolitics

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tradewinds LLC. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2,134.8% during the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 45,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $10,984,000 after purchasing an additional 43,080 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 31.3% during the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 354,529 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $86,345,000 after buying an additional 84,553 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the third quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 157,143 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $38,272,000 after buying an additional 3,444 shares during the last quarter. American National Bank of Texas bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $900,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.7% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,164,341 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $206,542,000 after purchasing an additional 42,028 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $348.00 price objective (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $343.90.

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.