Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Stake Trimmed by Artemis Investment Management LLP

Key Points

• Artemis Investment Management cut its Alphabet stake by 18.4% in the third quarter, selling 126,288 shares and retaining 560,874 shares valued at approximately $193 million.
• Institutional ownership remains significant at 40.03%, with several major investors—including State Street, Arrowstreet Capital and T. Rowe Price—recently increasing their Alphabet positions.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, assigning Alphabet an average “Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $425.72, while the stock recently traded near $348.29. The company also exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations.

Artemis Investment Management LLP reduced its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 18.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 560,874 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 126,288 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.5% of Artemis Investment Management LLP's holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Artemis Investment Management LLP's holdings in Alphabet were worth $192,986,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 238,977,259 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $85,403,303,000 after buying an additional 12,718,127 shares in the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Alphabet by 28,950.0% in the 1st quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,291,926 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,671,986,000 after buying an additional 9,259,940 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Alphabet by 90.9% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,040,373 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,900,078,000 after acquiring an additional 8,112,680 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Alphabet by 127.9% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 11,677,886 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,655,178,000 after acquiring an additional 6,554,842 shares during the period. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 45.8% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,737,125 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,299,721,000 after acquiring an additional 4,313,745 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on GOOGL. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $379.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $425.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. BMO Capital Markets set a $465.00 price target on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Alphabet from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $417.00 price target (up from $411.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $425.72.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.6%

NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $348.29 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $235.84 and a 1 year high of $408.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.26 trillion, a PE ratio of 17.49, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.64. The business's 50-day moving average is $345.99 and its 200 day moving average is $349.17.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. The business had revenue of $119.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google introduced an agentic version of Gemini for business users. The unified agent is designed to perform tasks across workplace applications, strengthening Alphabet’s position in enterprise AI and intensifying competition with Microsoft and OpenAI. Google brings agentic AI to Gemini
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous-vehicle unit secured a $5 billion loan from Blackstone, PIMCO and Sixth Street, providing financing for robotaxi expansion without requiring Alphabet to fund the entire rollout directly. Waymo secures $5 billion loan
• Positive Sentiment: Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet’s AI drug-discovery subsidiary, is reportedly discussing a funding round valuing the business between $40 billion and $50 billion. A successful financing could highlight the value of Alphabet’s AI portfolio beyond search and advertising. Isomorphic Labs funding talks
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains strongly bullish: Needham reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $450 price target, while other reports cited broad upside expectations based on Alphabet’s earnings power, cloud growth and AI opportunities.
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet and Unity expanded their AI gaming partnership, including tools that let users create games through natural-language prompts. The initiative could broaden Google Play engagement, although monetization and adoption remain unproven. Google and Unity gaming partnership
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms publicized an existing securities class action covering investors who purchased Alphabet securities from May 19 through July 16, 2026. The complaints allege that management failed to disclose issues related to the expected Gemini 3.5 Pro launch and training results. These are allegations, not findings of liability, but the repeated alerts add legal and reputational overhang. Alphabet securities class action announcement
• Negative Sentiment: Google was ordered to halt work on two Finnish data centers pending environmental-impact assessments, potentially delaying infrastructure expansion. Commentary also questioned whether Alphabet is converting heavy AI capital spending into sufficient revenue and criticized its progress in AI coding.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 83 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.45, for a total value of $28,257.35. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 19,076 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,494,424.20. This trade represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at $9,125,015.20. This trade represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 441,399 shares of company stock valued at $8,677,053 in the last quarter. 11.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc is a technology and internet services company best known as the parent company of Google. Its primary business, Google Services, includes online search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and a range of hardware and subscription products.

Alphabet also operates Google Cloud, which provides infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, productivity software, and artificial intelligence services to businesses, governments, and other organizations.

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