Leuthold Group LLC Acquires 2,364 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Leuthold Group LLC lifted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 3.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,857 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,364 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises approximately 1.9% of Leuthold Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Leuthold Group LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $16,982,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the second 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during 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 buying an additional 4,224,497 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $313.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.95, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.09. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $320.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.27. 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 (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,832.60. This trade represents a 23.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total value of $10,637,250.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,211,872 shares in the company, valued at $723,945,705.60. The trade was a 1.45% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock valued at $119,145,289. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price (up from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, February 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 target price on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, DZ Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $366.57.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is folding its robotics-software unit Intrinsic into Google, signalling tighter integration of robotics/physical AI efforts and likely faster commercialization of automation tools. Former Alphabet ‘moonshot’ robotics company Intrinsic is folding into Google
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo is expanding robotaxi testing to Chicago and Charlotte, accelerating route expansion and potential near-term revenue scale for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle unit. Waymo to begin testing in Chicago and Charlotte
• Positive Sentiment: Samsung’s S26 demonstrates deeper adoption of Google’s Gemini (autonomously operating third‑party apps), which supports Gemini’s distribution thesis and monetization pathway across devices. Samsung’s S26 gives an advance look at what the Google-powered Apple Siri could do
• Positive Sentiment: Google announced a major 1.9GW clean-power backing for a new data center including a 100‑hour iron‑air battery — a long-duration storage deal that lowers carbon and energy risk for AI datacenter ops. Google’s new 1.9GW clean energy deal includes massive 100-hour battery
• Positive Sentiment: Loop Capital raised its GOOGL price target to $355, and Wells Fargo issued an upgrade — analyst support that can boost sentiment and flows into the stock. Loop Capital Boosts Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Price Target to $355.00
• Positive Sentiment: Google says it disrupted a China‑linked hacking group that attacked dozens of organizations globally — a security win that reduces operational risk and demonstrates enterprise trustworthiness. Google disrupts Chinese-linked hackers that attacked 53 groups globally
• Neutral Sentiment: February short‑interest data in feeds appears erroneous (shows 0 shares / NaN changes); no clear short‑squeeze signal from that report. (data entry)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory pressure in Europe: Reuters reports Google will test showing rivals’ vertical search results more prominently to try to avoid an EU fine — highlights ongoing antitrust risk that can cap multiples. Exclusive: Google to test changes to search results, source says as EU fine looms
• Negative Sentiment: Russia fined Google ~22 million roubles (~$288k) over VPN distribution — a small hit monetarily but another reminder of geopolitical/legal friction in certain markets. Russia fines Google for distributing VPN services, TASS reports
• Negative Sentiment: Reports of insider selling were flagged in headlines, which can weigh on near‑term sentiment even if the transactions are not material to long‑term fundamentals. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Down 1.1% After Insider Selling

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.