Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Trading Down 2.3% – Time to Sell?

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s share price fell 2.3% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $310.13 and last traded at $311.3150. 23,870,625 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 1% from the average session volume of 23,710,818 shares. The stock had previously closed at $318.63.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Scotiabank kept an Outperform on Alphabet and raised its price target to $400, signaling continued analyst conviction and upward price-target momentum. Scotiabank Maintains its Outperform Rating on Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL)
• Positive Sentiment: Google is testing new AI shopping integrations in Search and Gemini that monetize conversational AI via ad/product placements — a clear pathway to lift ad/commerce revenue over time. Google Weaves New Shopping Feature Into Search and Gemini
• Positive Sentiment: The EU gave unconditional antitrust approval to Alphabet’s $32B Wiz acquisition, removing a major regulatory overhang and preserving the deal’s strategic value for Google Cloud security. Google secures EU antitrust approval for $32 billion Wiz acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Some funds added meaningful GOOG exposure (eg, Egerton Capital opened a ~$338.5M position and other managers increased stakes), which can support shares over the medium term. Fund Update: Egerton Capital (UK) LLP Just Disclosed New Holdings
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest reports in today’s feeds show effectively zero reported days‑to‑cover figures (likely a reporting artifact), so short‑interest data isn’t adding meaningful directional signal right now.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s very large debt raise — initially reported as a $20B offering and later increased above $30B, including a rare 100‑year, 6.125% tranche — spooked some investors who view the scale and maturity as a sign of elevated capex needs and balance‑sheet risk; coverage of the sale is cited as the main reason for the intraday weakness. Alphabet sells bonds worth $20 billion to fund AI spending
• Negative Sentiment: Privacy/legal headlines and regulatory friction persist: a report that Google provided a student journalist’s personal/financial data to ICE and an EU publishers’ antitrust complaint about AI Overviews underscore ongoing legal and reputational risks. Google sent personal and financial information of student journalist to ICE European Publishers Council files EU antitrust complaint about Google’s AI
• Negative Sentiment: Some institutional sellers and fund trims (several portfolio updates show decreases) add short‑term selling pressure amid the broader sell‑off narrative. Fund Update: FRANKLIN RESOURCES INC Just Disclosed New Holdings

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on GOOG. Raymond James Financial upgraded Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $343.47.

Alphabet Stock Performance

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 50 day simple moving average of $322.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $273.75. The company has a market cap of $3.76 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.80, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. 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 analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.15 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be given 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total value of $10,893,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,179,372 shares in the company, valued at $730,481,906.96. This represents a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total value of $314,001.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,916 shares in the company, valued at $3,337,229.80. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,070,464 shares of company stock valued at $106,153,077 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $132,114,125,000 after buying an additional 8,128,234 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $33,511,477,000 after buying an additional 2,428,266 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,760,033 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,022,926,000 after purchasing an additional 441,177 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 100,602,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,569,189,000 after buying an additional 1,073,151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at about $18,093,665,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.