Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC Reduces Stock Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Key Points

• Zevenbergen Capital trimmed its Alphabet stake by 6.4% in Q4, selling 40,595 shares and now owning 595,660 shares worth $186.918 million (about 4.2% of its portfolio and its 7th largest holding).
• Wall Street sentiment is positive overall — the consensus rating is Buy with an average price target of $345.71, and several firms have recently raised targets and upgraded ratings (e.g., Pivotal $420, Raymond James to strong‑buy at $400).
• Near‑term risks include heavy insider selling (2.1 million shares worth ~$115 million over three months), a Turkey competition probe into ad/billing practices, and the departure of Alphabet’s principal accounting officer, creating regulatory and leadership uncertainties.

Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - Free Report) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 595,660 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 40,595 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 4.2% of Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $186,918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,914,125 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $33,511,477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,266 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 8.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,529,742 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $24,240,469,000 after buying an additional 7,904,434 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in Alphabet by 5.8% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 40,032,291 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,749,864,000 after buying an additional 2,209,203 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Alphabet by 0.7% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 32,583,332 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $7,935,671,000 after buying an additional 223,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 28,625,464 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,971,769,000 after buying an additional 539,679 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOOG shares. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Pivotal Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $420.00 target price (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $348.00 price target (up from $345.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Alphabet from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $315.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $345.71.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Gemma 4, an open‑source AI model family that strengthens Google’s developer ecosystem and supports future cloud/AI revenue opportunities. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Google updated Gemini API pricing with “Flex” and “Priority” tiers to balance speed, cost and reliability — that could broaden usage, enable more price‑sensitive workloads, and boost API adoption/revenue. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Technical advances like TurboQuant (memory/compression for large models) can lower infrastructure costs for AI workloads and improve margins over time — a structural benefit to Google’s cloud/AI economics. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo and other analysts remain constructive (Overweight/Buy) but have trimmed price targets — signaling confidence in the long run while dialing back near‑term expectations. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market/ETF flows continue to amplify Alphabet’s moves (SPY/QQQ dynamics): macro risk‑on/off days can create outsized short‑term volatility for big caps. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Big Tech H‑1B filings have fallen, reflecting broader hiring freezes/reshuffling across the sector — not an Alphabet‑specific revenue issue but a labor/strategy signal. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Turkey’s competition authority opened an investigation into Google’s advertising and billing practices — regulatory probes risk fines, remedial costs and local ad‑revenue disruption. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s principal accounting officer, Amie Thuener O’Toole, is leaving (joining Broadcom as CFO) — departure of a senior finance leader creates some short‑term transition risk for controls and reporting. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Semianalysis warned heavy AI capex could push Google’s free cash flow toward zero next year — investors sensitive to FCF may penalize valuation if spending outpaces monetization. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling by senior executives (e.g., John Kent Walker) adds to near‑term negative sentiment, especially amid market sensitivity to insider activity. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader legal pressure on platforms (recent cases challenging Section 230 protections) raises regulatory and litigation risk for YouTube/Google content/ad products. Read More.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $294.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.13. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $350.15. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $309.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $296.60.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. 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. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.15 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,993 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.89, for a total transaction of $2,481,078.77. Following the transaction, the insider owned 51,808 shares in the company, valued at $14,293,309.12. This represents a 14.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total transaction of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,101,844 shares of company stock valued at $115,147,751. Insiders own 12.99% of the company's stock.

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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