Whittier Trust Co. Sells 5,128 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Whittier Trust Co. lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 253,879 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 5,128 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 0.7% of Whittier Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $62,289,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $54,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 36.4% during the second quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $63,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 37.9% in the 2nd quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial set a $385.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group set a $348.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $357.46.

Alphabet Stock Down 2.5%

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

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. 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 7.77%.

Key Alphabet News

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.52, for a total transaction of $202,512.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 21,224 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,163,524.48. This represents a 2.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total transaction of $10,893,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,179,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $730,481,906.96. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,067,686 shares of company stock worth $105,352,291. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.