Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Acquired by Simon Quick Advisors LLC

Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 20,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,480 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $4,978,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 51.7% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,607,232,000 after acquiring an additional 10,843,853 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Alphabet by 201.3% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,153,824,000 after acquiring an additional 4,374,542 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.45, for a total value of $31,971.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,205 shares in the company, valued at $5,706,357.25. The trade was a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total value of $10,439,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at $720,914,730.12. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 224,587 shares of company stock valued at $66,549,284 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $328.57 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $306.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $249.87. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $330.83.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Key Alphabet News

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GOOGL. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “buy” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $340.00 to $343.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $306.00 price objective (up from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, December 31st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $350.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.19.

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.