Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Raised by Plato Investment Management Ltd

Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 139,063 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,651 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 2.3% of Plato Investment Management Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $33,549,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Delta Asset Management LLC TN lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 6,153 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,496,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Matisse Capital raised its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the third quarter. Matisse Capital now owns 14,814 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,601,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Breakwater Investment Management boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.0% during the third quarter. Breakwater Investment Management now owns 4,228 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,028,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 1.0% in the third quarter. Wealth Alliance Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,045 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $983,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearview Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 3.3% in the third quarter. Clearview Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $35,060,852.00. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289. 11.55% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cloud partnerships expanding addressable market — Google announced a deal with Sea Ltd to build AI tools for e‑commerce and gaming, which supports Google Cloud revenue growth in Southeast Asia and demonstrates enterprise demand for its AI stack. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum — Google is rolling Gemini‑powered, music‑focused generative‑AI features (also showing up at competitors), indicating faster consumer AI adoption that could boost engagement and future monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional support & analyst upgrades — recent 13F activity and analyst price‑target increases (and MarketBeat coverage) signal long‑term investor conviction that can underpin the stock. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI infrastructure arms race — NVIDIA–Meta mega‑deal and hyperscaler capex plans validate AI demand but raise competitive and capital‑intensity questions for Google; this is demand‑positive but increases the investment bar. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet exploring chip/partner strategies — WSJ reports Google is weighing ways to use its balance sheet to better compete with chip suppliers, a strategic move that could reduce long‑run costs or distract management depending on execution. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — recent disclosed sales by CEO Sundar Pichai and senior exec John Kent Walker (multi‑million dollar sales) can sap near‑term sentiment even if routine for compensation/liquidity reasons. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Security/legal risk — indictment of three engineers accused of stealing Google trade secrets and sending data to Iran raises potential IP, litigation and reputational risks that investors will watch. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI rotation/profit‑taking — some prominent managers have trimmed AI positions in recent 13F filings, which contributes to episodic pressure on hyperscaler multiples. Read More.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $314.98 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $320.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.14, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on GOOGL shares. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. New Street Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. CICC Research upped their target price on Alphabet from $240.00 to $303.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price target (up previously from $365.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.86.

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.