Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Sells 5,284 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,407,860 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,284 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises about 6.5% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $342,250,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Breakwater Investment Management increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. Breakwater Investment Management now owns 4,228 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,028,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,045 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $983,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wallington Asset Management LLC now owns 3,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $808,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LongView Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the third quarter. LongView Wealth Management now owns 3,817 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $928,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Argus boosted their price target on Alphabet from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Alphabet from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $310.00 to $370.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Roth Capital increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.19.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
• Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
• Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $328.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $330.83. The business has a 50 day moving average of $306.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $249.31. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total transaction of $184,914.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,206,872.04. This trade represents a 13.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 225,187 shares of company stock worth $66,695,036. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.