Sound Shore Management Inc CT Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Sound Shore Management Inc CT lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 25.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 324,214 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 110,460 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 2.6% of Sound Shore Management Inc CT’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Sound Shore Management Inc CT’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $78,816,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Moment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,039,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the period. Brooktree Capital Management purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $352,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares in the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.9% during the second quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,415,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock valued at $119,145,289. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. New Street Research raised their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price target on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.57.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $307.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.43, a PEG ratio of 1.84 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 stock’s 50 day moving average is $320.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.45. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. Analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its Tensor Processing Units to Meta, validating TPU demand and directly boosting Google Cloud/infra revenue potential. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage highlights accelerating Google Cloud growth, heavy AI-driven demand and a large backlog (~$240B cited), supporting faster revenue expansion and margin leverage from cloud services. AI Push Provides a Boost to GOOGL’s Cloud Business
• Positive Sentiment: Google launched Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster speeds and better text rendering — another visible product that drives user engagement and showcases Gemini-era AI improvements. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Longer-term optionality from stakes and partnerships: coverage points to Alphabet’s meaningful Anthropic stake (equity upside + Google Cloud infra revenue) and other private holdings that could materially boost valuation if monetized. Alphabet’s Quiet Edge: The Hidden Assets Powering Its Run
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo is expanding testing to Chicago and Charlotte as it scales autonomous ride‑hailing — a revenue diversification story that supports the long-term “Other Bets” growth narrative. Waymo to begin testing in Chicago and Charlotte
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet folded robotics software unit Intrinsic into Google — operational consolidation that may speed commercialization but has limited near-term revenue impact. Former Alphabet ‘moonshot’ robotics company Intrinsic is folding into Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Google reported disruption of a China-linked hacker network — positive for security posture and enterprise trust but unlikely to move near-term fundamentals. Google disrupts Chinese-linked hackers
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulatory pressure: Google is testing a new search layout to show rivals’ vertical results more prominently in Europe to try to avoid a fine — a change that could reduce some direct monetization in affected result types if broadly adopted. Google to test changes to search results as EU fine looms
• Negative Sentiment: Minor regional/legal friction: a small Russian fine was reported for distributing VPN apps — reputational/regulatory noise but immaterial to global results. Russia fines Google for distributing VPN services
• Negative Sentiment: Market signals: there were reports of insider selling and mixed analyst flows (price-target moves), which can prompt short-term profit-taking after a long GOOGL run. Alphabet Shares Down After Insider Selling

Alphabet 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.