Sentry LLC Sells 1,700 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Sentry LLC cut its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 32.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,619 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,700 shares during the quarter. Sentry LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $880,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Pachira Investments Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.3% during the third quarter. Pachira Investments Inc. now owns 5,195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,263,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Index Fund Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 13.8% in the 3rd quarter. Index Fund Advisors Inc. now owns 5,053 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,228,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares during the period. Capital & Planning LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 2,419 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $588,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 10,172 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,473,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gunderson Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $8,900,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $662,526,494.12. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares in the company, valued at $13,531,453.08. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 189,909 shares of company stock valued at $57,927,282 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. HSBC boosted their price target on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Roth Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $210.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 target price (up previously from $320.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Wolfe Research set a $380.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.31.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big AI monetization wins — Apple’s decision to build next‑gen Siri on Google’s Gemini (a central catalyst behind Alphabet topping a ~$4 trillion valuation) implies licensing revenue and much broader Gemini distribution, which supports revenue and margins. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst backing — recent upgrades and a higher price target (e.g., Bank of America raised its GOOGL target) are propping sentiment and provide near‑term buy‑side support. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New commercial partnerships — Google announced a Woolworths pilot to add agentic AI to its Olive chatbot in Australia, expanding potential retail use cases and distribution for Google’s AI services. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive positioning — DeepMind leadership and comments that Chinese models are “months” behind support Alphabet’s technical edge, but competition remains intense and will keep investment cycles high. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Antitrust fallout — Google asked a judge to defer an order forcing it to share search data while it appeals a ruling that found an illegal monopoly in search; ongoing remedies or eventual enforcement could materially affect the core search business and ad economics. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Copyright litigation risk — major publishers are seeking to join a class action alleging Google used copyrighted material to train its AI, creating potential licensing costs, damages or restrictions on training data. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Infrastructure headwinds — Google warns U.S. transmission system constraints are slowing data‑center hookups and could raise capex and delay cloud/AI capacity expansion, pressuring near‑term margins. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — a disclosed director sale (600 shares) is small but adds to mixed sentiment amid other headwinds. Read More.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.8%

Alphabet stock opened at $330.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $311.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $254.85. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $340.49. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.28%.

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.