Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich Buys New Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Munich Reinsurance Co purchased a new position of 337,557 shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), valued at about $82.2 million, representing ~2.1% of the fund's holdings and making Alphabet its sixth-largest holding.
• Alphabet posted a Q4 beat with EPS $2.82 vs. $2.59 and revenue $113.83B (up 18% YoY) and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.21 per share (annualized yield ~0.3%).
• Large institutions (e.g., JPMorgan, Vanguard, Norges Bank) hold or increased sizable stakes while insiders have recently sold shares; analysts' consensus rating is Buy with an average target of $343.90.

Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 337,557 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $82,212,000. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.1% of Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich's holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOOG. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at $4,298,572,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Alphabet by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $24,240,469,000 after buying an additional 7,904,434 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 416,753,033 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $73,927,821,000 after buying an additional 5,182,111 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Alphabet by 73.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 9,808,152 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,388,775,000 after buying an additional 4,154,929 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 17,547.9% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,122,727 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $731,331,000 after buying an additional 4,099,366 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near‑term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non‑defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near‑term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12‑month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI‑growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high‑profile Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short‑term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous‑vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near‑term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GOOG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Pivotal Research restated a "buy" rating and issued a $420.00 price target (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $343.90.

Insider Activity

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total value of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,674,560 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total value of $184,038.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 20,624 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,325,999.52. This trade represents a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $298.30 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market capitalization of $3.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $320.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $286.82. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $350.15.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

About Alphabet

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.