Sundar Pichai Sells 32,500 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. This represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Sundar Pichai also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, February 4th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total value of $10,893,350.00.
• On Wednesday, January 21st, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total transaction of $10,637,250.00.
• On Wednesday, January 7th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total value of $10,439,325.00.
• On Monday, December 15th, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total value of $9,743,500.00.
• On Wednesday, December 3rd, Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $319.50, for a total value of $10,383,750.00.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock traded up $12.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $314.98. The company had a trading volume of 53,155,101 shares, compared to its average volume of 37,132,258. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $349.00. The company’s fifty day moving average is $320.20 and its 200-day moving average is $277.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on GOOGL. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. President Capital lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Citic Securities boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $230.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three investment 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.86.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SB Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,212,000. Catalyst Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at $248,000. Dorsey Wright & Associates acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at $2,545,000. Cambient Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth $6,846,000. Finally, Attestor Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth about $6,363,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

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.