Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Makena Capital Management LLC

Makena Capital Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 26.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 77,294 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 27,631 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.9% of Makena Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Makena Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,790,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after buying an additional 6,733,278 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after buying an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $24,857,017,000 after buying an additional 4,224,497 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $21,944,208,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,151,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,780,875,000 after acquiring an additional 503,306 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large cloud commercial win — CVS will deploy an AI?enabled health platform on Google Cloud, validating enterprise demand for recurring cloud/AI revenue and supporting the Google Cloud/Gemini growth story. CVS taps Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: AI partnership continuity — Google said Anthropic will remain available for non?defense projects after DoD actions, limiting disruption to Alphabet’s access to Anthropic models and enterprise AI offerings. Google says Anthropic remains available
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and institutional support — Robert W. Baird lifted its price target to $380 and other firms have boosted targets/ratings recently, reinforcing buy narratives and upside vs. the current price. Baird raises price target
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sales — filings show modest sales by a director and the CAO; routine disclosures that markets note but are not large enough to signal strategic conviction changes. SEC filing — insider sales
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary on recent pullback — coverage (e.g., Zacks) highlights the stock’s slide since earnings and asks whether it can rebound, offering investor viewpoints but no new company fundamentals. Zacks — can it rebound?
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/PR overhang: a wrongful?death lawsuit alleges harmful guidance from the Gemini chatbot, raising potential liability, regulatory scrutiny and reputational risk for Alphabet’s core AI investment thesis. Gemini wrongful?death lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Autonomous?vehicle scrutiny — the NHTSA/NHTSA?led safety forum and ongoing probes into Waymo incidents increase regulatory risk and operational uncertainty for the self?driving unit. NHTSA self?driving safety forum
• Negative Sentiment: App store revenue pressure — a settlement with Epic lowered Play Store commission rates (to ~20% + up to 5%), which could modestly reduce Play?ecosystem take rates and near?term revenue. Play Store commission cut
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/geopolitical pressure — recent tensions and tech pullbacks in affected markets (e.g., Dubai exposure) are weighing on large?cap tech multiples, contributing to negative sentiment around GOOGL. Tech offices respond to U.S.-Iran tensions

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Arete Research lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. UBS Group set a $348.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $367.18.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.7%

Alphabet stock opened at $298.80 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $319.93 and its 200-day moving average is $286.87. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $349.00. The company has a market cap of $3.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.64, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. On average, equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 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 issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, 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 sale, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the business’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 transaction, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094. Corporate insiders own 11.55% of the company’s stock.

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.