Flow Traders U.S. LLC Raises Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Flow Traders U.S. LLC grew its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 404.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,835 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,885 shares during the period. Flow Traders U.S. LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $2,391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position 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 grew its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in Alphabet by 28.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after buying an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Market perception that Alphabet has shifted from being “hunted” to a “hunter” in the AI race — investors interpret this as improved competitive positioning for search, ads and cloud monetization, supporting near‑to‑midterm growth expectations. Alphabet (GOOG) gained from its shift in the AI race from being ‘hunted’ to being a ‘hunter’
• Positive Sentiment: Google closed its ~$32B acquisition of Wiz — strengthens cloud security capabilities and enterprise positioning, which should help diversify revenue and deepen enterprise cloud relationships over time. Wiz investor unpacks Google’s $32B acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Needham reiterated a Buy on GOOGL, which can buoy investor sentiment and act as a near‑term catalyst for buying interest. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC
• Neutral Sentiment: Heavy retail/investor attention and trending stock coverage (Zacks) — increased searches can raise volatility and volume, but are not a direct signal of fundamentals. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data shows zero reported short shares and a 0.0 days‑to‑cover — likely a reporting anomaly; not meaningful evidence of decreased bearish positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulatory risk: European publishers and tech firms are urging the EU to conclude a long antitrust probe and impose a fine on Google over alleged search favoritism — a faster or larger penalty could pressure revenue from search and create operational constraints. Exclusive: European publishers, tech firms urge EU to speed up fine on Google over search

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. President Capital lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” 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 given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.18.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $305.56 on Tuesday. 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 cap of $3.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $318.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $291.05. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director owned 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. The trade was a 2.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the business’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. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 2,076,615 shares of company stock valued at $107,809,111 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.