Alphabet Inc. $GOOG is Blair William & Co. IL’s 5th Largest Position

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,145,955 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 34,074 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 2.0% of Blair William & Co. IL’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $766,197,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GOOG. Tradewinds LLC. raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2,134.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 45,098 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,984,000 after buying an additional 43,080 shares during the period. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp grew its stake in Alphabet by 31.3% in the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 354,529 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $86,345,000 after acquiring an additional 84,553 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 157,143 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,272,000 after acquiring an additional 3,444 shares during the period. American National Bank of Texas purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth $900,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,164,341 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $206,542,000 after acquiring an additional 42,028 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on GOOG. DA Davidson set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total transaction of $184,038.00. Following the sale, the director owned 20,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. The trade was a 2.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

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

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $298.30 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $320.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $286.82. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.59, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $350.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.15 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

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.