Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Frances Arnold Sells 112 Shares of Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,580,469.82. This trade represents a 0.60% 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 link.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, January 29th, Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $34,680.00.
• On Wednesday, December 31st, Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.45, for a total value of $31,971.90.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.3%

GOOGL stock traded down $3.80 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $299.33. 18,029,558 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 35,992,371. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $320.49 and a 200-day moving average of $284.90. 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:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend 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 research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. DZ Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 16th. HSBC increased their price target on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Wolfe Research boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.57.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud commercial wins: CVS will use Google Cloud to roll out an AI?enabled health platform, validating Cloud’s enterprise AI pull and recurring revenue potential. CVS taps Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Large AI spending theme supports growth outlook: industry reports and analyst commentary highlight accelerating AI budgets, bolstering the long?term Google Cloud/Gemini revenue thesis. Gartner Says AI Spending Will Hit $2.5 Trillion
• Positive Sentiment: App distribution normalized: Fortnite will return to Google Play worldwide, removing a distribution disruption and helping Play Store engagement. Fortnite to return to Google Play worldwide
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider sales noted but small: the CAO and a director sold modest stakes (955 and 112 shares); routine SEC filings that markets monitor but typically aren’t major directional drivers. SEC filing — insider sales
• Negative Sentiment: Play Store settlement trims commissions: Alphabet agreed to cut Play Store commissions to 20% (plus up to 5% for Google billing), which could be a modest near?term revenue headwind for Play?ecosystem income. Google settles with Epic Games
• Negative Sentiment: Gemini legal/PR risk: a wrongful?death suit alleges harmful instructions from the Gemini chatbot — a significant reputational and legal overhang for Alphabet’s AI efforts. Gemini wrongful-death suit
• Negative Sentiment: Waymo safety probes: NTSB and local investigations into Waymo incidents raise regulatory and operational risks for the autonomous?driving unit. NTSB Waymo incidents
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/geopolitical drag: escalating U.S.–Iran tensions and related regional disruptions have prompted tech pullbacks and operational impacts in markets like Dubai, pressuring large?cap tech multiples. Tech offices respond to U.S.-Iran war

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,338,397,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,686,640,000 after acquiring an additional 15,159,273 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,546,413,000 after purchasing an additional 13,004,828 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Alphabet by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after purchasing an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

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.