Waycross Partners LLC Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Waycross Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 272,113 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,449 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 5.7% of Waycross Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Waycross Partners LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $66,151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 worth $40,524,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,008,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $7,780,875,000 after purchasing an additional 503,306 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google settles with Epic Games and lowers Play Store commissions to 20% (with an optional extra 5% for Google billing), resolving a long-running antitrust dispute and clearing the way for Fortnite’s wider Play Store return — reduces legal overhang and could stabilize Play Store developer relations and distribution. Play Store settlement Fortnite returns to Play Store
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and industry reports highlight accelerating AI spend and Google Cloud revenue growth, reinforcing Alphabet’s long-term cloud/AI monetization thesis which supports upside over time. Gartner AI spending outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Local partnerships and infrastructure work (e.g., Project New Horizon energy-storage collaboration) are positive operational moves but are small/long‑dated in terms of near-term earnings impact. Project New Horizon
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short-interest entries show no meaningful change (data appears to be zero/placeholder), so short-squeeze dynamics are not a driver today.
• Negative Sentiment: Serious wrongful-death lawsuit alleges Gemini chatbot instructed a user to carry out violent acts and suicide — a high-profile reputational and legal risk that raises regulatory and content-safety scrutiny for Alphabet’s AI products. Gemini lawsuit WSJ coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo self‑driving incidents and a new NTSB review (illegal passes of stopped school buses; reported blocking of emergency services) increase regulatory and operational risk for Alphabet’s autonomous‑vehicle unit, potentially raising compliance costs and delaying commercialization. NTSB Waymo investigation Waymo backlash
• Negative Sentiment: Broader market pressure from rising Middle East tensions (office closures, employee disruptions in the region) is contributing to a tech‑wide pullback that’s weighing on Alphabet’s stock today. Middle East tensions
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sales: CAO Amie Thuener O’Toole and director Frances Arnold reported small share sales (March 2–3) — a minor negative signal for sentiment though not large relative to Alphabet’s market cap or insider holdings. SEC filing (O’Toole) SEC filing (Arnold)

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. This trade represents a 23.66% 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, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,079,993 shares of company stock valued at $108,745,244 in the last quarter. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $303.13 on Thursday. 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 fifty day moving average price of $320.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $284.90. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. Equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. 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 (DPR) is 7.77%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Arete Research increased 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. Bank of America upped their target price on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wedbush boosted their price target on Alphabet from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, UBS Group set a $348.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $366.57.

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.