Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.

Key Points

• ZWJ Investment Counsel trimmed its Alphabet stake by 5.8% in Q4 to 454,282 shares (about $142.6M), with GOOG representing 5.1% of the fund and its largest single holding.
• AI and Google Cloud wins are driving positive sentiment — Alphabet rolled out AI agent tools, new eighth‑gen TPUs and landed large deals (Thinking Machines, Merck), and analysts hold a consensus "Buy" with an average price target of $347.16.
• Insider and institutional selling is notable: insiders sold over 2.03M shares (~$94.2M) in the last 90 days and several funds disclosed large 13F reductions, which could pressure the stock near term.

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 454,282 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 28,143 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up 5.1% of ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $142,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Tradewinds LLC. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2,134.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 45,098 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $10,984,000 after purchasing an additional 43,080 shares during the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 29,896 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,381,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 31.3% during the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 354,529 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $86,345,000 after purchasing an additional 84,553 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 221,391 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $53,920,000 after purchasing an additional 2,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 157,143 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $38,272,000 after purchasing an additional 3,444 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out a new set of AI agent tools and an enterprise Gemini Agent platform to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI — a direct monetization push for Google Cloud that boosts expectations for faster enterprise adoption. Google launches new AI agent tools
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet unveiled eighth‑gen TPUs split into TPU 8t (training) and TPU 8i (inference) to cut model costs and differentiate Google Cloud from Nvidia — a strategic infrastructure move that could improve margins and attract large AI workloads. Google Cloud launches two new AI chips
• Positive Sentiment: Thinking Machines Lab signed a multi‑billion dollar deal to expand on Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure, validating demand for Cloud’s GPU/TPU capacity and pipeline revenue potential. Thinking Machines multi‑billion deal
• Positive Sentiment: Merck announced a multi‑year partnership that could direct up to $1B of AI infrastructure and engineering spend to Google Cloud — a large, high‑visibility enterprise win. Merck to partner with Google Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: BMO raised its price target and called Alphabet a go‑to way to own AI, a notable sell‑side endorsement that can lift sentiment and flows into the stock. BMO raises target to $410
• Neutral Sentiment: Google added AI automation to Workspace and built Chrome features for enterprises — product progress that supports long‑term monetization but has uncertain near‑term revenue impact. Google updates Workspace
• Neutral Sentiment: Google partnered with Cadence to accelerate automated chip design (Gemini integration) — strategically relevant for in‑house silicon efforts, but timing and revenue contribution remain uncertain. Google partners with Cadence
• Negative Sentiment: Large reported institutional reductions (several fund 13F filings show big cuts to GOOG/GOOGL positions), which can create short‑term selling pressure even if driven by rebalancing. Janney 13F reduction
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling (disclosed director sale of ~1,050 shares) adds to negative optics for some investors, though the trade size is small versus Alphabet’s market cap. Insider sale filing

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $348.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $347.16.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 51,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,293,309.12. This trade represents a 14.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total value of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at $5,580,469.82. This trade represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 2,037,294 shares of company stock valued at $94,216,897 over the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $337.73 on Thursday. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $306.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $303.75. The company has a market cap of $4.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.13. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.49 and a fifty-two week 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.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The company's revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

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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