Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc.

Key Points

• Ipswich Investment Management trimmed its Alphabet stake by 2.8% in Q4, selling 1,676 shares and retaining 59,081 shares worth $18.49 million, making GOOGL its third‑largest holding (4.3% of assets).
• Analysts are growing more bullish—several firms raised price targets (e.g., Citigroup to $390, RBC to $400), the consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with a $367.33 target, and Google Cloud partnerships and capacity momentum are cited as key positives.
• Insiders have been net sellers (over 2.07 million shares worth ~$104.7 million in the past three months), while Alphabet announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 ($0.84 annual, ~0.3% yield).

Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 59,081 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,676 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 4.3% of Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc.'s holdings in Alphabet were worth $18,492,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Google–Intel AI infrastructure partnership boosts visibility for Google Cloud capacity and lowers execution risk for AI workloads hosted on Google’s platform. Investors view deeper Intel ties as supportive of sustained cloud/AI demand. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Broadcom–Google/Anthropic TPU and networking deals lock in multi‑year supply for Google’s custom AI racks, strengthening Alphabet’s hardware stack and third‑party TPU offerings — a structural positive for Google Cloud inference/train economics. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud momentum: recent writeups highlight ~50% Q4 cloud growth, a large cloud backlog and heavy capex to expand TPU/data center capacity — the operating story supporting higher revenue visibility and margin improvement. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Project Glasswing and broader industry cybersecurity initiatives (including banks and big tech) reduce AI‑related operational risk for cloud providers and reinforce Google’s role in enterprise AI security cooperation. That should reassure enterprise customers. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support is increasing: Needham and Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated bullish ratings with elevated price targets, and William O'Neil reinstated a Buy — near‑term sentiment tailwind for the shares. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Waymo geographic expansion (Nashville) and Wing/ DoorDash drone rollout (Atlanta) provide concrete commercialization updates for Alphabet’s non‑Search growth engines, supporting optionality beyond ads. Read More. / Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces and investor guides (Fool, MarketBeat) reiterate Alphabet’s long‑term AI/cloud story — helpful for sentiment but not new operational data. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Mentions of Alphabet’s stake in SpaceX and “hidden assets” offer valuation debate fodder; potential upside if monetized but uncertain timing. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Operational headwinds flagged for hyperscalers (community pushback, water/land/energy constraints) as some data‑center projects face delays or cancellations — a potential capex/expansion risk for cloud capacity plans. Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $360.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. DZ Bank restated a "buy" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $367.33.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.4%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $318.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $307.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $297.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.10 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The company has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.46, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.12.

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

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total value of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,069,344 shares of company stock worth $104,708,426. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

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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