Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Westpac Banking Corp

Westpac Banking Corp trimmed its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 3.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,804 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,669 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 0.7% of Westpac Banking Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,156,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new stake in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its position in Alphabet by 145.0% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 196 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. The trade was a 8.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet closed its largest-ever acquisition, buying cybersecurity firm Wiz for about $32 billion — a major strategic move to beef up Google Cloud’s security offerings and drive enterprise revenue. Google officially snaps up Wiz as it closes mammoth $32 billion deal
• Positive Sentiment: TPG sold its stake in solar/storage platform Intersect to Google — expanding Alphabet’s clean-energy footprint and potentially supporting longer-term data-center/cloud cost control. TPG Refocuses On Clean Energy With Intersect Exit And IPX Power Launch
• Positive Sentiment: Canal+ signed a multi-year deal to deploy Google Cloud generative AI across production and streaming — a customer win that supports Cloud/AI monetization. Canal+ taps Google’s AI for video production, content recommendation
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Google rolled out Gemini Embedding 2 and integrated Gemini into Workspace apps — these product improvements support ad/Cloud upsell and productivity use cases. Google (GOOGL) Stock Rises after Introducing New Gemini Embedding 2 AI Model
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/bench strength: brokerages maintain a bullish consensus (majority “Buy”) and several recent price-target raises — supports medium-term upside expectations. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages
• Neutral Sentiment: GFiber (Google Fiber) will combine with Astound and be majority owned by Stonepeak; Alphabet keeps a minority stake — monetizes infrastructure but reduces operational control. Google sells partial stake in fiber business, becomes minority owner of new venture
• Neutral Sentiment: DoD/Pentagon deployment: Google is rolling out Gemini AI agents on the Pentagon’s GenAI.mil for unclassified tasks — a large potential enterprise deployment but one that brings political/regulatory complexity. Google deepens Pentagon AI push after Anthropic sues Trump administration
• Neutral Sentiment: Branding note — Google named its new London HQ “Platform 37” (nod to King’s Cross and AlphaGo history). Low direct financial impact. Google names London office ‘Platform 37’ in a nod to railway neighbour, AI ‘Go’ match
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: UK regulator deadline to better protect children online raises compliance and potential ad-targeting constraints that could pressure ad revenue in Europe. Big tech given warning – and deadline – by UK regulator

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on GOOG shares. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $360.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, DA Davidson set a $300.00 price target on Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $343.90.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $308.42 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $350.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The business’s fifty day moving average is $319.85 and its 200-day moving average is $289.01. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.15 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 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.