Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Stock Holdings Trimmed by Cortland Associates Inc. MO

Key Points

• Cortland Associates Inc. MO trimmed its Alphabet stake by 2.4%, selling 3,785 shares to hold 155,766 shares valued at $48.88 million, representing about 6.2% of the fund and its 8th largest position.
• Alphabet delivered a blowout Q1 (EPS $5.11 vs. ~$2.68 consensus; revenue $109.9B) with Google Cloud up ~63% to ~$20B, prompting multiple analyst price-target raises and a consensus "Buy" rating.
• Management flagged massive AI-driven capex (~$185–190B in 2026, higher in 2027), which could pressure free cash flow and heighten execution/regulatory risk, even as the company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 per share.

Cortland Associates Inc. MO trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 155,766 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 3,785 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 6.2% of Cortland Associates Inc. MO's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Cortland Associates Inc. MO's holdings in Alphabet were worth $48,879,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Alphabet by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $24,240,469,000 after buying an additional 7,904,434 shares during the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth $678,198,000. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $455,745,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Alphabet by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 40,032,291 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,749,864,000 after purchasing an additional 2,209,203 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 208.0% in the third quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 1,130,681 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $273,026,000 after purchasing an additional 2,177,855 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Needham & Company LLC set a $400.00 target price on Alphabet and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $362.73.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Record Q1 fundamentals — Alphabet beat estimates (EPS $5.11 vs. $2.64 consensus) and reported $109.9B revenue; Google Cloud grew ~63% to ~ $20B with a very large backlog, which underpins multi-year revenue visibility and explains the rally. Alphabet Q1 2026 Earnings Call Highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street is upgrading targets — multiple firms (JPMorgan, TD Cowen, Scotiabank, Raymond James, Piper Sandler and others) raised price targets and reiterated buys after the quarter, signaling analyst conviction that AI/cloud growth justifies higher valuation. Coverage: Recent price-target raises
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic wins and ecosystem advantages — articles argue Alphabet’s “compute” advantage (TPUs, datacenter scale, full‑stack Gemini integrations) gives it a structural edge versus rivals and supports both ad/product monetization and enterprise AI demand. Compute is destiny. Google just proved it.
• Neutral Sentiment: Government and enterprise demand — the U.S. Pentagon and other large customers have agreements with leading AI providers including Google, validating long-term cloud/AI revenue channels but timing and contract sizes vary. This supports durable demand but is not an immediate revenue kicker. Pentagon reaches agreements with leading AI companies
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx intensity and cash flow tradeoff — management signaled very large AI-related capital spending (2026 capex ~ $185–190B and “significantly higher” expected in 2027). That funds growth but will pressure free cash flow and raises execution/ROI scrutiny. Alphabet ups 2026 capex to as much as $190 billion
• Negative Sentiment: Rising cost concerns and regulatory risks — commentary highlights the growing capital and operating cost of AI (potential margin/cashflow headwinds), and regulators in Europe are probing Google’s AI/search features — both are watch‑items for investors. Google Stock Growth Collides With The Rising Cost Of AI Italy asks EU to investigate Google AI search tools

Alphabet Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of GOOG opened at $383.22 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.49 and a 52 week high of $383.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $4.64 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.23, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.13. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $312.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $307.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.81 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 955 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 9,918 shares in the company, valued at $2,955,564. This represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 191,986 shares of company stock worth $59,159,207. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.