Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Exchange Traded Concepts LLC

Key Points

• Exchange Traded Concepts LLC reduced its Alphabet stake by 41.3% in Q3, selling 413,145 shares and leaving 588,064 shares valued at about $142.96 million (Alphabet was 1.2% of its portfolio and its 13th-largest holding).
• Significant insider selling occurred: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares for roughly $9.74 million on Dec. 15, and insiders sold 226,128 shares worth $63.18 million over the last quarter, though insiders still own 11.64% of the company.
• Analysts remain broadly positive — MarketBeat shows a Moderate Buy consensus with an average target of $315.90 after several target increases — and Alphabet recently beat quarterly EPS/revenue estimates and declared a $0.21 quarterly dividend.

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lowered its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 41.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 588,064 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 413,145 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up 1.2% of Exchange Traded Concepts LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $142,958,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $31,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 36.4% in the 2nd quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Corsicana & Co. acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 37.9% during the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 324 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 77.6% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 348 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Key Stores Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and retail outlets continue to list Alphabet as a core long-term AI holding, highlighting its stakes across Search, Cloud and other AI niches — reinforcing the narrative that GOOGL is a durable beneficiary of multi‑trillion-dollar AI opportunity. Buy and Hold: 5 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Own Through 2035
• Positive Sentiment: Comparisons with Adobe emphasize Alphabet’s AI momentum in Search and Cloud, suggesting GOOGL has a competitive edge in AI-driven enterprise and ad products — a vindication for investors focused on durable revenue growth. ADBE vs. GOOGL: Which AI-Driven Tech Stock Has an Edge Now?
• Positive Sentiment: Cloud coverage groups Alphabet with Amazon and Microsoft as key plays for an AI-driven cloud/data-center cycle in 2026 — supporting upside to Cloud revenue and infrastructure spending forecasts. 3 Cloud Computing Stocks to Buy Before 2026 as Digital Demand Soars
• Neutral Sentiment: MarketBeat’s week-in-review notes Alphabet’s strong 2025 performance and frames the recent pullback as a potential “buy‑the‑dip” setup supported by institutional conviction — useful for tactical buyers but not a catalyst by itself. MarketBeat Week in Review – 12/22 - 12/26 (GOOGL)
• Neutral Sentiment: Product signals: Google is testing a Gmail feature to let users change addresses without losing data (first visible in Hindi guidance), showing ongoing product innovation that supports user engagement but is not material to near‑term revenue. Google is rolling out a new feature allowing users to change their Gmail address
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage on quantum computing places Alphabet among legacy players getting closer to useful quantum tech — a constructive long‑term story but unlikely to move quarters of revenue in the near term. 3 Genius Quantum Computing Stocks to Buy for 2026
• Negative Sentiment: A Reuters report about a San Francisco power outage that left Waymo robotaxis stranded raises operational and PR concerns for Alphabet’s autonomous‑vehicle ambitions (Waymo sits under Alphabet’s Other Bets), highlighting execution and emergency‑readiness risks that can pressure sentiment on the "moonshot" side of the business. Waymo's San Francisco outage raises doubts over robotaxi readiness during crises

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GOOGL shares. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $260.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $306.00 price target (up previously from $255.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $224.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $365.00 price target (up previously from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $315.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.80, for a total transaction of $9,743,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,239,619 shares in the company, valued at $671,437,776.20. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total value of $184,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,916 shares in the company, valued at $1,206,872.04. This represents a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 226,128 shares of company stock valued at $63,183,331 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.2%

GOOGL stock opened at $313.51 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.07. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $328.83. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $295.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $239.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The business had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 35.00%. Research analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.28%.

Alphabet Company 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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