Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by WBI Investments LLC

WBI Investments LLC trimmed its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 32.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,409 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,613 shares during the period. WBI Investments LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,801,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 worth $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,642,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock worth $118,134,117 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat highlights Alphabet as a relative leader among mega‑cap tech names — cites consecutive earnings beats, Google Cloud strength and outperformance vs. peers, supporting investor confidence in execution. 2 Tech Giants Holding Their Ground While the Market Slides
• Positive Sentiment: DeepMind hires Jasjeet Sekhon (Bridgewater’s chief scientist) as chief strategy officer — a high‑profile AI hire that strengthens DeepMind’s talent and strategy as Alphabet pushes AI leadership. Exclusive: Bridgewater’s chief scientist Sekhon to join Google’s DeepMind AI unit
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Wiz acquisition bolsters Google Cloud security capabilities — strengthens competitive positioning vs. AWS/Azure and supports Cloud revenue growth narratives. GOOGL’s Wiz Buyout Expands Cloud Security Portfolio: What’s Ahead?
• Positive Sentiment: Google is implementing an AI opt‑out for websites to address UK competition concerns — a regulatory concession that should reduce policy risk around generative search features. Google to allow AI opt-out to ease UK competition concerns
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s Stitch redesign and other product moves underline AI-driven product expansion (also pressuring competitors like Adobe), reinforcing the TAM growth story for Alphabet’s software/AI stack. Adobe Stock Drops After Google’s Stitch Redesign
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet paid a small dividend on March 16 ($0.21/share) — a shareholder‑friendly move that can support investor sentiment. Google stock just paid dividends; here’s how much investors received
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling disclosed: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (~$10.0M) and Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares — notable transactions but small relative to their holdings; watch for pattern rather than one‑off sales. Sundar Pichai insider sale John L. Hennessy insider sale
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest data appears anomalous (reports of zero/NaN) and is not signaling a clear short‑squeeze or build‑up at present.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader investor worry over massive hyperscaler AI spending and whether returns justify it — analysts flag $410B+ hyperscaler capex and growing margins pressure, which weighs on tech multiples including Alphabet. Forget the War Headlines: This Is the Real Reason Tech Stocks Are Struggling
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation concerns persist as analysts debate whether Alphabet’s higher capex and margin pressure justify its current P/E — this keeps upside constrained despite operational wins. How The Alphabet (GOOGL) Investment Story Is Shifting With AI Deals And Valuation Questions

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $307.69 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00. The company has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $318.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $291.85.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for 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%. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOGL. Loop Capital upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $320.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 6th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group raised their price objective on Alphabet from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

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.