State of Wyoming Decreases Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

State of Wyoming decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 24.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 21,421 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,757 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.6% of State of Wyoming’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. State of Wyoming’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $5,217,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. Tradewinds LLC. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 2,134.8% in the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 45,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,984,000 after acquiring an additional 43,080 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.4% during the second quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 170,020 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $30,160,000 after purchasing an additional 2,304 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% during the third quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 157,143 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $38,272,000 after purchasing an additional 3,444 shares in the last quarter. American National Bank of Texas purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $900,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,164,341 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $206,542,000 after purchasing an additional 42,028 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

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

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson set a $300.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Barclays upped their target price on Alphabet from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price target (up previously from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.47.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of GOOG opened at $323.10 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $350.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $322.32 and a 200-day moving average of $271.94.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced 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. 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.15 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total transaction of $202,512.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 21,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,163,524.48. This represents a 2.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 933 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.55, for a total value of $314,001.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,337,229.80. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,070,464 shares of company stock worth $106,153,077. 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.