Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Purchases 20,100 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its Alphabet stake by 11.8% in the fourth quarter, buying 20,100 more shares and bringing its total holding to 190,914 shares worth about $59.9 million.
• Alphabet reported strong first-quarter results, with EPS of $5.11 beating estimates and revenue of $109.9 billion topping forecasts, while quarterly revenue rose 21.8% year over year.
• The stock has continued to draw bullish analyst and investor support, with a consensus Buy rating and an average price target of $362.73, even as the company faces ongoing regulatory pressure in Europe.

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 190,914 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 20,100 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 0.4% of Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co's investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co's holdings in Alphabet were worth $59,909,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Imprint Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Towne Trust Company N.A boosted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 34.0% during the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 134 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lynch Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google unveiled a broader AI push at its Android event, including Gemini-powered features, new “Googlebooks” laptops, and agentic AI tools, reinforcing the company’s leadership in AI and mobile ecosystems.
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Google is discussing orbital data centers with SpaceX have sparked investor excitement about a potential long-term infrastructure advantage in AI and cloud computing. Report: Google and SpaceX in talks to put data centers into orbit
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet continues to attract bullish analyst and investor attention after strong Q1 results and ongoing cloud/AI growth, supporting the case for additional upside. Alphabet: The A-Z AI Play Set To Profit From The Whole Industry
• Positive Sentiment: Several large investors disclosed higher stakes in Alphabet, including Capital World Investors and other institutions, which can reinforce confidence in the stock’s long-term fundamentals.
• Neutral Sentiment: One fund update showed a large reduction in GOOG holdings by Capital International Investors, but this appears to be portfolio rebalancing rather than a direct company-specific warning.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet still faces regulatory pressure in Europe, including efforts to avoid an EU antitrust fine tied to spam-policy changes and broader DMA compliance concerns.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOOG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Pivotal Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $470.00 target price (up from $420.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $362.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In related news, Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total transaction of $37,842.00. Following the sale, the director owned 18,621 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,908,391. The trade was a 0.54% 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, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares in the company, valued at $505,573,853.40. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 158,553 shares of company stock valued at $47,951,856 over the last three months. 12.99% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Up 4.0%

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $399.06 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a one year low of $160.93 and a one year high of $399.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $323.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $315.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.84 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.25.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The information services provider reported $5.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $2.43. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 38.99%. The business had revenue of $109.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.96 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.81 earnings per share. Alphabet's quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 14.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

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

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.

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