Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $495.30 Million Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Retirement Systems of Alabama trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,578,396 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,932 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.6% of Retirement Systems of Alabama’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $495,301,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,901,000 after buying an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 73.9% in the 2nd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 16,696 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,962,000 after acquiring an additional 7,095 shares during the period. LFL Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.2% in the second quarter. LFL Advisers LLC now owns 123,638 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,932,000 after acquiring an additional 3,786 shares in the last quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 12.5% during the second quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 23,947 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,248,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656 shares during the period. Finally, M Holdings Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 9.5% during the second quarter. M Holdings Securities Inc. now owns 40,587 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,204,000 after acquiring an additional 3,505 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Gemma 4, an open?source AI model family that strengthens Google’s developer ecosystem and supports future cloud/AI revenue opportunities. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Google updated Gemini API pricing with “Flex” and “Priority” tiers to balance speed, cost and reliability — that could broaden usage, enable more price?sensitive workloads, and boost API adoption/revenue. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Technical advances like TurboQuant (memory/compression for large models) can lower infrastructure costs for AI workloads and improve margins over time — a structural benefit to Google’s cloud/AI economics. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo and other analysts remain constructive (Overweight/Buy) but have trimmed price targets — signaling confidence in the long run while dialing back near?term expectations. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market/ETF flows continue to amplify Alphabet’s moves (SPY/QQQ dynamics): macro risk?on/off days can create outsized short?term volatility for big caps. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Big Tech H?1B filings have fallen, reflecting broader hiring freezes/reshuffling across the sector — not an Alphabet?specific revenue issue but a labor/strategy signal. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Turkey’s competition authority opened an investigation into Google’s advertising and billing practices — regulatory probes risk fines, remedial costs and local ad?revenue disruption. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s principal accounting officer, Amie Thuener O’Toole, is leaving (joining Broadcom as CFO) — departure of a senior finance leader creates some short?term transition risk for controls and reporting. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Semianalysis warned heavy AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year — investors sensitive to FCF may penalize valuation if spending outpaces monetization. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling by senior executives (e.g., John Kent Walker) adds to near?term negative sentiment, especially amid market sensitivity to insider activity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader legal pressure on platforms (recent cases challenging Section 230 protections) raises regulatory and litigation risk for YouTube/Google content/ad products. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on GOOG. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Needham & Company LLC set a $400.00 price target on Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $345.71.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet 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 directly owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,101,844 shares of company stock worth $115,147,751. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

NASDAQ GOOG opened at $294.46 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $350.15. The business’s fifty day moving average is $309.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $296.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.13. 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:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.15 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was 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.