Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd.

Key Points

• Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (~$10.64M) and John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares (~$14.34M), while insiders sold a total of 2,069,344 shares valued at $104.7M over the past 90 days, leaving insiders with 11.55% ownership.
• Analyst bullishness: Multiple firms have raised price targets (Bank of America to $370, Roth to $395, Evercore and Jefferies to $400, Mizuho to $420), leaving a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” with an average target of $366.92.
• Recent results and payout: Alphabet beat estimates with Q4 EPS of $2.82 vs. $2.57 and revenue of $113.83B vs. $111.24B, and the company pays a quarterly dividend of $0.21 (annualized $0.84, ~0.3% yield).

Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 31.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,501 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 5,351 shares during the quarter. Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $3,600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOGL. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $416,217,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 7,180 shares in the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 23.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,401,000 after purchasing an additional 4,241 shares in the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 50,064 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 8,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,666,577 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $405,131,000 after purchasing an additional 60,831 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.30, for a total value of $10,637,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,211,872 shares of the company's stock, valued at $723,945,705.60. This trade represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 2,069,344 shares of company stock valued at $104,708,426 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.55% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on GOOGL. Bank of America raised their price objective on Alphabet from $335.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Roth Mkm increased their target price on Alphabet from $365.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $366.92.

Alphabet Price Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $317.20 on Monday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.10 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.84 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $306.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $299.04.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $111.24 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was 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%.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Stronger AI/cloud positioning: Google expanded its multi‑year AI infrastructure partnership with Intel to co‑develop processors and power Google Cloud AI workloads — a sign of durable demand for cloud AI capacity that supports Google Cloud revenue growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Broadcom and Anthropic deals validate Google’s AI infrastructure strategy and the broader market for non‑NVIDIA accelerators — a constructive signal for Alphabet’s AI cost and supply relationships. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness on AI adoption: BNP Paribas and other commentators highlight Gemini and Anthropic as drivers that can take share in the generative AI market, underpinning ad/productivity monetization upside for Alphabet. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Monetization tailwind — YouTube raised U.S. Premium prices, which should boost ARPU and subscription revenue over time. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish price‑target action from Mizuho (raised to $420) reinforces upside thesis for investors focused on long‑term AI/cloud gains. (No link)
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest report is effectively meaningless/noisy for today’s move (data shows zero shares / reporting artifact), so it’s not the driver of the stock’s action. (No link)
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk for Waymo: A California bill would require more human operators for robotaxis, raising operating costs and regulatory uncertainty for Alphabet’s autonomous‑vehicle ambitions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: International/content regulatory pressure: Indonesia issued a reprimand to YouTube over new social media rules for children, underscoring regional enforcement risk that can hit engagement or require costly compliance changes. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade pressure: Wolfe Research trimmed its price target from $390 to $360, which increases short‑term selling pressure despite the firm still rating the stock “outperform.” (No link)

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google's core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google's consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.

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