Franchise GP Ltd Buys Shares of 17,339 Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Franchise GP Ltd bought a new stake of 17,339 shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) in Q4, valued at about $5.44 million and making Alphabet 6.3% of the fund's portfolio as its fourth-largest holding.
• Alphabet reported standout Q1 results—EPS $5.11 (vs. ~$2.68 est.) and $109.9B revenue, with Google Cloud up ~63% to roughly $20B—prompting multiple analyst price-target increases and a consensus "Buy" rating.
• Corporate insiders have been net sellers recently: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares, and insiders disposed of 191,986 shares worth about $59.16 million in the past 90 days.

Franchise GP Ltd bought a new stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 17,339 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,441,000. Alphabet comprises 6.3% of Franchise GP Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 8.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $24,240,469,000 after purchasing an additional 7,904,434 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter valued at about $678,198,000. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at about $455,745,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 5.8% during the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 40,032,291 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,749,864,000 after purchasing an additional 2,209,203 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 208.0% during the third quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 1,130,681 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $273,026,000 after purchasing an additional 2,177,855 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.18, for a total value of $10,893,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,179,372 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $730,481,906.96. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 approximately $3,987,279.15. This trade represents a 78.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 191,986 shares of company stock valued at $59,159,207 in the last ninety days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Price Performance

Alphabet stock opened at $383.22 on Friday. The stock's 50 day moving average is $312.44 and its 200 day moving average is $307.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market cap of $4.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.13. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $149.49 and a one year high of $383.39.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $2.43. The company had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 38.99% and a net margin of 37.92%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.81 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.62 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 6.71%.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Record Q1 fundamentals — Alphabet beat estimates (EPS $5.11 vs. $2.64 consensus) and reported $109.9B revenue; Google Cloud grew ~63% to ~ $20B with a very large backlog, which underpins multi-year revenue visibility and explains the rally. Alphabet Q1 2026 Earnings Call Highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street is upgrading targets — multiple firms (JPMorgan, TD Cowen, Scotiabank, Raymond James, Piper Sandler and others) raised price targets and reiterated buys after the quarter, signaling analyst conviction that AI/cloud growth justifies higher valuation. Coverage: Recent price-target raises
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic wins and ecosystem advantages — articles argue Alphabet’s “compute” advantage (TPUs, datacenter scale, full‑stack Gemini integrations) gives it a structural edge versus rivals and supports both ad/product monetization and enterprise AI demand. Compute is destiny. Google just proved it.
• Neutral Sentiment: Government and enterprise demand — the U.S. Pentagon and other large customers have agreements with leading AI providers including Google, validating long-term cloud/AI revenue channels but timing and contract sizes vary. This supports durable demand but is not an immediate revenue kicker. Pentagon reaches agreements with leading AI companies
• Negative Sentiment: CapEx intensity and cash flow tradeoff — management signaled very large AI-related capital spending (2026 capex ~ $185–190B and “significantly higher” expected in 2027). That funds growth but will pressure free cash flow and raises execution/ROI scrutiny. Alphabet ups 2026 capex to as much as $190 billion
• Negative Sentiment: Rising cost concerns and regulatory risks — commentary highlights the growing capital and operating cost of AI (potential margin/cashflow headwinds), and regulators in Europe are probing Google’s AI/search features — both are watch‑items for investors. Google Stock Growth Collides With The Rising Cost Of AI Italy asks EU to investigate Google AI search tools

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOOG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised Alphabet from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. DZ Bank raised Alphabet to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $362.73.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc NASDAQ: GOOG is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.

Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.

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