Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Waycross Partners LLC

Key Points

• Waycross Partners LLC reduced its Alphabet stake by 4.4%, selling 11,889 shares to hold 260,224 shares worth about $81.45 million, making GOOGL its second‑largest position.
• Insiders have been net sellers recently — Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares and CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (≈$10.0M), with insiders disposing of roughly 2.1 million shares (~$115.1M) over the past three months.
• Analysts remain broadly constructive, citing AI/cloud upside (e.g., Gemma 4 and TurboQuant) and higher price targets, but Alphabet faces near‑term risks from a Turkish regulatory probe, rising legal exposure around Section 230, and concerns that heavy AI capex could pressure free cash flow.

Waycross Partners LLC reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 260,224 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 11,889 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 6.7% of Waycross Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Waycross Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $81,450,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOGL. PMV Capital Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new position in Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $53,000. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $53,000. Corsicana & Co. purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.03% of the company's stock.

More Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive — Wells Fargo kept an overweight rating (while trimming targets), and other outlets highlight Buy/Outperform views that point to meaningful upside from cloud/AI monetization. Wells Fargo Raised the PT on Alphabet Inc (GOOGL), Maintains a Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Product/efficiency wins: Google’s Gemma 4 and the TurboQuant algorithm reduce model memory needs and improve on‑device/model efficiency — strengthens competitive moat and could lower operating costs for AI services. Google's Gemma 4 brings AI superpowers to your device Google's TurboQuant Breakthrough Just Rewrote the AI Playbook
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamental/earnings confidence: coverage from Zacks and others flags Alphabet’s earnings growth and price strength as reasons to watch the stock heading into earnings season. Earnings Growth & Price Strength Make Alphabet (GOOGL) a Stock to Watch
• Neutral Sentiment: Talent movement: Broadcom named Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as its next CFO — notable departure to monitor but not an immediate earnings event. Broadcom taps Alphabet executive Amie Thuener as next CFO
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory probe in Turkey: the Turkish Competition Board opened an investigation into Google’s advertising and billing practices — potential fines, business restrictions or remediation costs could hit ad revenue/operations in the region. Turkey launches investigation into Google over advertising, billing practices
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk rises as Section 230 liability narrows: recent court losses for platforms (including YouTube/Google units) increase the probability of costly litigation and moderation compliance burdens. Meta, Google under attack as court cases bypass 30-year-old legal shield
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term cash‑flow and capex concern: industry commentary warns that hyperscaler AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year — elevates execution and financing risk until monetization of AI investments scales. Semianalysis CEO: Google's free cash flow will hit zero next year from AI capex
• Negative Sentiment: Operational/ESG risk from data‑center power strategy: reporting that hyperscalers (including Google) are building large natural‑gas plants to power AI centers raises reputational, regulatory and long‑term transition risks. AI companies are building huge natural gas plants to power data centers. What could go wrong?
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: an SEC filing shows a senior exec sold ~9k shares in late March — modest in dollar terms but can be read negatively by short‑term traders. Insider Selling: Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL Insider Sells 8,993 Shares of Stock

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at $505,573,853.40. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751. 11.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOGL opened at $295.77 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $309.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $296.27. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $140.53 and a 52 week high of $349.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOOGL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Moffett Nathanson increased their target price on Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $346.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $360.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned 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 target price of $367.33.

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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