Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Free Report) by 25.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 231,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 46,976 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.7% of Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $56,283,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in 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 last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 503,306 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
GOOGL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.18.
Alphabet Stock Performance
NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $307.04 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $319.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $288.33. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00. 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 market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.
Alphabet Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date 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%.
Insider Transactions at Alphabet
In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total transaction of $10,439,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over 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.
Key Alphabet News
Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Canal+ signed a multi‑year deal to use Google Cloud’s generative AI across production and streaming (content recommendation and video production), a direct revenue and platform‑adoption win for Google Cloud. Canal+ taps Google’s AI for video production, content recommendation
- Positive Sentiment: Broader media interest in AI (e.g., Netflix’s AI efforts followed by Canal+) reinforces recurring‑revenue and platform opportunities for Google’s AI/ads stack. This narrative supports upside for Cloud and Ads monetization. Netflix’s AI Drive Followed by This TV Group. It Just Struck a Deal With Google.
- Positive Sentiment: An analyst upgrade is cited as pushing trading momentum higher today, lending short‑term bullish catalyst and validating near‑term expectations for Cloud/AI growth. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Trading 2.6% Higher on Analyst Upgrade
- Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat technical/flow analysis highlights a pullback to ~$300 as a defended support, plus continued institutional inflows and lofty analyst price targets — a constructive backdrop for investors viewing the dip as a buying opportunity. Alphabet’s Pullback May Be Opening a New Entry Point
- Neutral Sentiment: Google is expanding AI agent tooling for the Pentagon and civilian use (Agent Designer / GenAI.mil). This can drive cloud/AI spend but raises policy and reputational complexity amid legal disputes involving other AI vendors. Google deepens Pentagon AI push after Anthropic sues Trump administration
- Neutral Sentiment: Google is part of industry efforts (with Tesla and others) on grid/utilization initiatives — long‑term strategic but unlikely to move near‑term revenue materially. Google and Tesla think we’re managing the electrical grid all wrong
- Negative Sentiment: Microsoft’s dual‑model AI strategy and deep Anthropic/OpenAI ties reinforce Azure’s competitive edge for enterprise AI workloads, representing a meaningful cloud/AI market risk for Google. Microsoft Positioned to Win AI Race With Dual-Model Strategy (GOOGL)
- Negative Sentiment: Scrutiny over Sundar Pichai’s $692M compensation package tied to unprofitable “moonshot” targets may raise governance concerns among some investors. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s new $692 million compensation package hinges on the success of two Google moonshots that aren’t making any money
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.
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