Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Has $1.02 Billion Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 19.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,203,836 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,003,189 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for about 5.3% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,023,844,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. A4 Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $1,701,000. Atlatl Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter. Atlatl Advisers LLC now owns 2,864 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $698,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Prostatis Group LLC increased its position in Alphabet by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Prostatis Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $490,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth about $139,000. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 6.3% in the third quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 817,665 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $199,805,000 after acquiring an additional 48,757 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.64, for a total value of $9,640,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,304,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $683,642,180.16. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,070,464 shares of company stock worth $106,153,077 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Mizuho set a $325.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Seven research 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.47.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $323.10 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $322.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $271.94. The stock has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.66 and a 12 month high of $350.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.15 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

About Alphabet

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.