Insider Selling: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Sells 102 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Alphabet director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares on April 30 at an average price of $371, reducing her stake by 0.54% to 18,621 shares (worth about $6.9M).
• Strong Q1 results: Alphabet reported EPS of $5.11 (vs. $2.64 est.) and revenue of $109.9B, with Google Cloud growing roughly 63% to over $20B, prompting multiple analyst price-target increases.
• Dividend increase: The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.22 (from $0.21), payable June 15 with an ex-dividend date of June 8, implying a 0.2% yield.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.00, for a total transaction of $37,842.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,908,391. This trade represents a 0.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, March 2nd, Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88.

Alphabet Stock Up 0.2%

GOOGL traded up $0.89 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $385.69. The company had a trading volume of 30,064,147 shares, compared to its average volume of 32,486,090. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $147.84 and a 52 week high of $386.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market capitalization of $4.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.42, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.12. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $313.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $307.81.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The information services provider reported $5.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.64 by $2.47. Alphabet had a net margin of 37.92% and a return on equity of 41.25%. The firm had revenue of $109.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $106.98 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from Alphabet's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. Alphabet's dividend payout ratio is 7.77%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Symmetry Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,476,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 2,540 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $730,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Members Trust Co increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,014,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 7,952 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,489,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corus Family Wealth Advisors increased its stake in Alphabet by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Corus Family Wealth Advisors now owns 2,090 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $601,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 earnings & Google Cloud surge — Alphabet beat on EPS and revenue; Google Cloud grew ~63% to >$20B and backlog jumped near $460B, underpinning earnings momentum and revenue visibility. Alphabet’s Earnings Didn’t Just Beat—They Changed the Story
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street re-rating — Dozens of brokers raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform views (Goldman, JPMorgan, Citi, Canaccord, etc.), lifting upside expectations and supporting momentum. JPMorgan price target note
• Positive Sentiment: Product & monetization catalysts — Gemini rollout into millions of vehicles and comments about ads in AI-driven Search/Gemini expand potential ad & cloud monetization paths. Google's Gemini hits cars
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial & government demand — The Pentagon signed agreements with leading AI vendors (including Google) to deploy AI tools on classified networks, validating enterprise/government demand for secure AI infrastructure. Pentagon AI agreements
• Positive Sentiment: Market narrative uplift — Coverage arguing Alphabet could challenge Nvidia for top market-cap status and that Google is “winning” the AI cycle is driving momentum flows and investor positioning. Barron's: The First $6 Trillion Company May Not Be Nvidia
• Neutral Sentiment: CapEx trajectory — Management signaled materially higher CapEx into 2027 to support AI/data centers; that supports future growth but raises near-term investment intensity and cash needs. Seeking Alpha: CapEx concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal risk — European scrutiny is rising: Italy asked the EU to investigate Google’s AI search features and Swiss regulators opened probes related to keyword bidding; these could lead to fines, remedies or product constraints. Italy asks EU to investigate Google AI search Switzerland probe

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. President Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $323.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $410.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $415.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $405.00 price objective (up from $360.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-seven have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $397.48.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google's core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google's consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.

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