John Hennessy Sells 1,050 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG traded down $3.63 during trading on Thursday, reaching $302.67. The stock had a trading volume of 2,967,756 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,421,328. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $318.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $292.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $142.66 and a one year high of $350.15. The company has a market capitalization of $3.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 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 analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. Alphabet’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alphabet

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 421,013,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $132,114,125,000 after purchasing an additional 8,128,234 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,511,477,000 after buying an additional 2,428,266 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 38,409.2% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 179,836,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,643,262,000 after acquiring an additional 179,369,280 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in Alphabet by 28,482.8% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 112,091,870 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,174,429,000 after acquiring an additional 111,699,704 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 100,602,893 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,569,189,000 after acquiring an additional 1,073,151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DeepMind hires Jasjeet Sekhon (former Bridgewater chief scientist) as chief strategy officer — high?profile AI talent that strengthens DeepMind’s research/commercial capabilities vs. OpenAI/Anthropic. Bridgewater’s chief scientist Sekhon to join Google’s DeepMind AI unit
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s Stitch redesign and other AI product updates are pressuring competitors (Adobe, Figma) — signals faster monetization and product expansion outside core search/ads. Adobe Stock Drops After Google’s Stitch Redesign
• Positive Sentiment: Wiz buyout and other cloud security moves broaden Google Cloud’s enterprise footing — supports higher cloud revenue and AI adoption with less friction vs. AWS/Azure. GOOGL’s Wiz Buyout Expands Cloud Security Portfolio
• Neutral Sentiment: Google will let websites opt out of generative AI in search to ease UK competition concerns — may reduce regulatory tail?risk but could limit product features in that market. Google to allow AI opt-out to ease UK competition concerns
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (~$10.0M at ~$307.89) — part of a pattern of recurring insider sales; large, repeated sales can trigger short?term caution among investors. Alphabet CEO Sells $10,006,425.00 in Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is increasing reliance on Chinese suppliers for advanced liquid cooling and may acquire a Chinese cooling firm — improves AI capacity but raises geopolitical/export?control and regulatory risk. Alphabet’s Growing China Cooling Ties Add New Angle To AI Valuation
• Negative Sentiment: Broader analyst commentary warns hyperscalers’ huge AI capex could pressure margins/valuation if returns lag — a sector headwind that can weigh on GOOG despite its scale. Forget the War Headlines: This Is the Real Reason Tech Stocks Are Struggling

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. DZ Bank raised shares of Alphabet to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. DA Davidson set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $345.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $345.71.

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.