Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CAO Sells $178,701.71 in Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total value of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 10,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Amie Thuener O’toole also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, March 3rd, Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00.
• On Monday, February 2nd, Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total transaction of $314,001.15.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL remained flat at $295.77 on Friday. 21,637,281 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 30,443,852. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $140.53 and a one year high of $349.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $309.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $295.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.12. 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 data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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 $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.8% during 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 146,193,037 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,625,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666,676 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Alphabet by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 69,108,183 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $21,630,861,000 after buying an additional 3,218,852 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GOOGL shares. New Street Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered Alphabet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Arete Research upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, UBS Group set a $348.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.33.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive — Wells Fargo kept an overweight rating (while trimming targets), and other outlets highlight Buy/Outperform views that point to meaningful upside from cloud/AI monetization. Wells Fargo Raised the PT on Alphabet Inc (GOOGL), Maintains a Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Product/efficiency wins: Google’s Gemma 4 and the TurboQuant algorithm reduce model memory needs and improve on‑device/model efficiency — strengthens competitive moat and could lower operating costs for AI services. Google’s Gemma 4 brings AI superpowers to your device Google’s TurboQuant Breakthrough Just Rewrote the AI Playbook
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamental/earnings confidence: coverage from Zacks and others flags Alphabet’s earnings growth and price strength as reasons to watch the stock heading into earnings season. Earnings Growth & Price Strength Make Alphabet (GOOGL) a Stock to Watch
• Neutral Sentiment: Talent movement: Broadcom named Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as its next CFO — notable departure to monitor but not an immediate earnings event. Broadcom taps Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as next CFO
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory probe in Turkey: the Turkish Competition Board opened an investigation into Google’s advertising and billing practices — potential fines, business restrictions or remediation costs could hit ad revenue/operations in the region. Turkey launches investigation into Google over advertising, billing practices
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk rises as Section 230 liability narrows: recent court losses for platforms (including YouTube/Google units) increase the probability of costly litigation and moderation compliance burdens. Meta, Google under attack as court cases bypass 30-year-old legal shield
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term cash‑flow and capex concern: industry commentary warns that hyperscaler AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year — elevates execution and financing risk until monetization of AI investments scales. Semianalysis CEO: Google’s free cash flow will hit zero next year from AI capex
• Negative Sentiment: Operational/ESG risk from data‑center power strategy: reporting that hyperscalers (including Google) are building large natural‑gas plants to power AI centers raises reputational, regulatory and long‑term transition risks. AI companies are building huge natural gas plants to power data centers. What could go wrong?
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: an SEC filing shows a senior exec sold ~9k shares in late March — modest in dollar terms but can be read negatively by short‑term traders. Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Insider Sells 8,993 Shares of 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.