Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Franklin Resources Inc.

Key Points

• Franklin Resources trimmed its Alphabet stake by 11.6% in Q3, selling 2,088,731 shares and now holds 15,887,316 shares (about $3.87 billion), making GOOG its 12th-largest holding.
• Insider selling has been material recently — John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares for ~$14.34M and insiders have offloaded 2,112,493 shares (~$118.6M) in the past 90 days; insiders own ~12.99% of the stock.
• Company performance and outlook: Alphabet beat quarterly estimates (EPS $2.82 vs $2.59; revenue $113.83B, +18% YoY), announced a $0.21 quarterly dividend, and carries a generally positive analyst consensus target of about $343.90.

Franklin Resources Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 11.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,887,316 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,088,731 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 1.0% of Franklin Resources Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.13% of Alphabet worth $3,869,356,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. University of Illinois Foundation purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its position in Alphabet by 145.0% during the third quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 196 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horrell Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet by 100.0% during the second 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 last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. The trade was a 78.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $33,934.88. Following the sale, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,580,469.82. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google is rolling out Gemini AI “Agent Designer” on the Pentagon’s GenAI.mil portal, making custom AI agents available to the Pentagon’s ~3 million personnel — a meaningful enterprise reference customer and validation of Google’s government AI strategy. Google deepens Pentagon AI push after Anthropic sues Trump administration
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet introduced Gemini Embedding 2, a new AI embedding model; market coverage noted an immediate positive reaction to the product release, supporting near-term demand and AI positioning. Google (GOOGL) Stock Rises after Introducing New Gemini Embedding 2 AI Model
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud-commercial momentum: expanded Waystar–Google Cloud partnership and continued deals (e.g., CVS Health AI-enabled platform) point to recurring cloud revenue and cross‑sell opportunities for Google Cloud. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Announced Expanded Partnership Between Waystar and Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Short interest fell meaningfully in late February (down ~29% to ~31.9M shares), reducing immediate downside pressure from short sellers and lowering days-to-cover — a modest technical positive for the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: Some short-interest reporting for early March shows anomalous zero/NaN values — treat those data points with caution; the underlying trend through late Feb was lower short interest.
• Neutral Sentiment: Meta will add advertiser location fees to cover digital taxes, following Google/Amazon precedent — an industry-level change that may normalize advertiser pass-throughs but doesn’t uniquely move Alphabet’s core fundamentals. Meta to charge advertisers a fee to offset Europe's digital taxes
• Negative Sentiment: Nvidia’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) shortage and rising HBM costs could raise infrastructure expenses for AI deployments and cloud providers, potentially increasing Google’s AI compute costs and capex. Nvidia’s (NVDA) Memory Shortage Could Cause Google (GOOGL) Billions
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: Indonesia’s plan to restrict high‑risk digital platforms for under‑16s could reduce engagement/monetization in that market if implemented broadly. Update: Indonesia Plans to Ban High-Risk Digital Platforms for Children Under 16
• Negative Sentiment: Insider activity: a recent CEO stock sale (~$9.86M) is a small negative signal investors sometimes watch; note this is routine for executives and not necessarily indicative of company health. Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOG CEO Sells $9,859,850.00 in Stock

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $306.93 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.71 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. The firm's 50 day moving average is $319.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $288.87. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $350.15. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $360.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $400.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. BNP Paribas Exane assumed coverage on Alphabet in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Profile

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.

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