Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Legacy Capital Group California Inc.

Legacy Capital Group California Inc. cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 17.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,927 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 0.9% of Legacy Capital Group California Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Legacy Capital Group California Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,399,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 37.9% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, S&T Bank PA raised its holdings in Alphabet by 40.2% in the second quarter. S&T Bank PA now owns 345 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total value of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,674,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $508,028,012.80. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. This represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on GOOGL. New Street Research boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Alphabet from $279.00 to $357.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.7%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $303.55 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $319.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $288.58. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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