Parthenon LLC Sells 6,180 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Parthenon LLC lowered its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 160,642 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,180 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 4.3% of Parthenon LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Parthenon LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $39,052,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $91,033,300,000 after purchasing an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 3.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 1.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after buying an additional 503,306 shares during the period. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet beat Q4 estimates with $113.8B revenue, $2.82 EPS, huge Google Cloud growth (48% y/y) and milestone annual revenue above $400B — evidence that AI and ads are driving durable top‑line momentum. Alphabet Crushes Earnings Again, Reports 48% Cloud Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Gemini/product adoption and a surging cloud backlog (reported at ~$240B) support longer‑term revenue leverage from AI investments — a structural growth argument investors and many analysts are citing. Google goes from laggard to leader as it pulls ahead of OpenAI with stellar AI growth
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokers raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views after the quarter (e.g., Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBC, Needham, Mizuho), providing analyst support under the share price. Multiple analyst price target raises (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest data shows no meaningful short position change (reads as negligible/quiet on short‑selling activity), so moves are likely driven by flows and sentiment rather than a short squeeze.
• Neutral Sentiment: ETF/sector flows and inclusion chatter (new Big Tech ETFs) can amplify moves in GOOGL but are not company‑specific catalysts. Big Tech Core: New Burney ETF Packs Apple, Nvidia, Google, Broadcom Punch
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet guided to $175–$185B of capex for 2026 (aimed at AI compute and cloud), a shockingly large jump that has investors fretting about near‑term free cash flow and returns on incremental AI spend — the dominant proximate cause of recent weakness. Alphabet resets the bar for AI infrastructure spending (CNBC)
• Negative Sentiment: Wider market narrative: fears about excessive AI capex are prompting a tech sell‑off (FactSet noted >$1T wiped from big‑tech), which weighs on Alphabet alongside company‑specific capex concerns. Big Tech sees over $1 trillion wiped from stocks as fears of AI bubble ignite sell-off
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was reported after the quarter, adding near‑term pressure on sentiment. Alphabet Shares Down After Insider Selling
• Negative Sentiment: Employee protests over Google Cloud contracts with immigration agencies pose reputational/legal risk that can create headline volatility. Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services for Immigration Agencies

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, November 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $355.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded Alphabet from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $357.46.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the firm’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 sale, the insider directly owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,531,453.08. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291 over the last ninety days. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $322.86 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $271.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Alphabet Company Profile

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.