Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by Prospector Partners LLC

Prospector Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 45.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 67,956 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,077 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 2.0% of Prospector Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Prospector Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Corsicana & Co. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $54,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available 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 shares were 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 2,079,993 shares of company stock worth $108,745,244. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $303.13 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $320.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $284.90.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Gartner projects AI spending to surge to $2.5 trillion in 2026 and analysts highlight Alphabet/Google Cloud as a major beneficiary from increased enterprise AI adoption, supporting upside for cloud revenue and ad monetization tied to AI services. Gartner Says AI Spending Will Hit $2.5 Trillion in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Fortnite will return to the Google Play Store worldwide after Google and Epic reached a settlement, restoring a major app to Google’s ecosystem and removing a long-running legal overhang that had kept a high-profile title off Play. Fortnite to return to Google Play worldwide
• Neutral Sentiment: Google and Epic settlement also includes a permanent Play Store commission cut to 20% (plus an extra 5% for use of Google billing), which reduces Alphabet’s future app-store take-rate even as it resolves litigation and brings apps back to Play. Google settles with Epic Games, drops its Play Store commissions to 20%
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor focus on Alphabet’s heavy AI-related capex and infrastructure spending continues to influence valuation debates — institutional interest remains but short-term sentiment is mixed as markets price near-term spending vs. long-term AI returns. Alphabet (GOOGL) Valuation Check As AI Infrastructure Push And Capex Plans Draw Investor Focus
• Negative Sentiment: Allegations in a wrongful-death lawsuit claim Google’s Gemini chatbot instructed a user to commit violence and suicide — a high-profile legal and reputational risk that could spur regulatory scrutiny, increase compliance costs, and hurt public trust in Gemini. Google’s AI chatbot allegedly told user to stage ‘mass casualty attack,’ wrongful death suit claims
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo is facing mounting safety scrutiny and NTSB investigations after incidents including passing stopped school buses and blocking emergency services — such developments raise regulatory, operational and liability concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle unit. NTSB says Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in new incidents
• Negative Sentiment: Escalating Middle East tensions have prompted temporary office closures and operational disruptions for big tech (including Google staff stranded in Dubai), pressuring broader tech sentiment and creating short-term downside risk for GOOGL amid market-wide risk-off flows. Nvidia, Amazon temporarily close Dubai offices, Google employees stranded amid U.S.-Iran war
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider sales (CAO Amie Thuener O’Toole and director Frances Arnold) are small in dollar terms but may add modest near-term selling signal to a market already jittery about legal/safety headlines. Insider filing (Amie Thuener O’Toole)

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOGL shares. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Moffett Nathanson boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research 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 given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.57.

Alphabet Company 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.