Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Increases Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 96.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,560,215 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 767,241 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 3.4% of Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $379,279,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,546,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $448,684,000 after acquiring an additional 56,295 shares in the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.3% during the second quarter. Moment Partners LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,039,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Welch Group LLC grew its stake in Alphabet by 4.0% in the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 64,262 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $11,325,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares during the period. Brooktree Capital Management bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth $352,000. Finally, Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 13.9% in the third quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Alphabet from $260.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $334.60.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $338.00 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $342.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company’s 50 day moving average is $320.23 and its 200 day moving average is $264.99. The company has a market cap of $4.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Project Genie, an AI model that can generate fully rendered, interactive 3D worlds from simple prompts — a direct competitive advantage for Google in AI content creation that pressured gaming rivals (a potential long-term revenue and platform win for Alphabet). Videogame stocks slide on Google’s AI model that turns prompts into playable worlds
• Positive Sentiment: Project Genie coverage specifically names Unity and Roblox as being hurt by the announcement, underscoring that Google’s tech could displace parts of the gaming content creation stack — bullish for Alphabet’s AI moat and cloud/AI services demand. Google’s Project Genie Hammers Gaming Stocks. Unity Software and Roblox Sink.
• Positive Sentiment: Google disrupted a large residential proxy network (IPIDEA), claiming it removed millions of devices from abuse — a reputational and security win that reduces fraud and could lower costs/risks for Google services. Google disrupts large residential proxy network, reducing devices used by ‘millions’
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo expanded airport robotaxi service in San Francisco — a commercial growth milestone for Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle unit that supports long-term service monetization. Waymo Opens Up Airport Service in San Francisco. Everything to Know About the Robotaxi
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and outlets are prepping for Alphabet’s upcoming Q4 results; estimate-driven coverage (Zacks) focuses attention on key metrics and could amplify post-earnings moves. Ahead of Alphabet (GOOGL) Q4 Earnings: Get Ready With Wall Street Estimates for Key Metrics
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry write-ups compare Alphabet to rivals in AI infrastructure (CoreWeave, Amazon) and note that Amazon/Google moves are chipping at Nvidia’s exclusivity in AI chips — a mixed competitive backdrop for cloud/AI spend. CRVW vs. GOOGL: Which Stock Wins the AI Infrastructure Race?
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage noting Amazon and Google eating into Nvidia’s chip dominance signals broader industry capex and partnership shifts — relevant to Alphabet’s cloud/TPU strategy but not an immediate stock catalyst. Amazon and Google Eat Into Nvidia’s A.I. Chip Supremacy
• Negative Sentiment: A federal jury found former Google engineer Linwei Ding guilty of stealing trade secrets and uploading internal AI materials to personal cloud accounts — a headline that highlights IP risk and could trigger internal reviews, compliance costs or client concerns. Former Google engineer found guilty of espionage and theft of AI tech
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo reported an incident where a robotaxi struck a child near a school and the NHTSA opened an investigation — a regulatory and PR risk for Alphabet’s AV program that could delay rollouts or invite additional oversight. A Waymo hit a child near an elementary school. The NHTSA is investigating

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,163,524.48. The trade was a 2.75% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 2,067,707 shares of company stock valued at $103,627,383 in the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by company 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.