Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,465,384 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 180,434 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.8% of Principal Financial Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,574,644,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $40,000. WestEnd Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 121.3% during the second quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.5%

GOOG opened at $323.10 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $350.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $322.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $271.38. The company has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.15 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat: Alphabet reported higher‑than‑expected revenue and EPS, Google Cloud grew ~48% YoY and backlog jumped to roughly $240B — proof of strong AI demand underpinning long‑term growth. Alphabet Crushes Earnings — MarketBeat
• Positive Sentiment: Product and ecosystem wins: Gemini adoption and enterprise traction (large token/API usage) are driving monetization across Search, YouTube and Cloud; Waymo is also using Google’s Genie‑3 model for virtual training — signals that AI investments are translating into product advantage. Waymo Taps Google’s Genie 3 — TipRanks
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst view is broadly positive but mixed on valuation: several price‑target raises and buy/overweight ratings highlight conviction in AI/cloud upside, while some firms flag a hold rating because of aggressive capex and near‑term margin pressure. New Analyst Forecast $395 — QuiverQuant
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate moves: Alphabet announced a small quarterly dividend and continues to convert AI investments into subscriptions and ad monetization — long‑term positives, but limited near‑term impact on share price.
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx shock: management guided roughly $175–185B in 2026 CapEx (nearly double 2025), which spooked investors because it pushes spending and capital intensity into the spotlight and raises near‑term return uncertainty. That guidance is the primary reason shares fell today. Alphabet Resets the Bar for AI Spending — CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Insider & fund selling: recent insider sales and public fund trimming (and some institutional position reductions) add selling pressure and amplify short‑term downside risk. Stock Down on Insider Selling — AmericanBankingNews
• Negative Sentiment: Policy & reputational risks: a proposed bill to regulate data‑center interconnection/charges and internal employee protests over government cloud contracts could raise operating costs or create reputational/headwind risks for data‑center expansion. Power for the People Act S.3682 — QuiverQuant Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services — NYTimes

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $343.47.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the business’s 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. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total transaction of $5,614,173.81. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. The trade was a 29.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 2,070,464 shares of company stock valued at $106,153,077 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.