Gabelli Funds LLC Sells 12,000 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Gabelli Funds LLC reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 423,260 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 12,000 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Gabelli Funds LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Gabelli Funds LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $103,085,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. lifted its stake in Alphabet by 60.9% in the second quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near‑term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non‑defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near‑term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12‑month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI‑growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high‑profile Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short‑term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous‑vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near‑term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on GOOG shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Raymond James Financial raised Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $350.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOG stock opened at $298.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $320.28 and its 200 day moving average is $286.23. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $350.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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 paid 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 of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at $508,028,012.80. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total value of $284,590.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Alphabet

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.