John Hennessy Sells 1,050 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Key Points

• Alphabet director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares on April 15 at an average price of $331.65 for about $348,232.50, cutting his stake by 22.67 to 3,581 shares worth roughly $1.19M (SEC filing).
• Alphabet’s fundamentals remain strong: shares traded near $341.68, market cap ~$4.13T and a P/E of 31.6, and the company beat last quarter’s estimates with EPS $2.82 (vs. $2.57) and revenue $113.83B.
• Wall Street and risks: analysts are largely positive (consensus “Moderate Buy,” avg target $368.25; DBS raised its target to $400), but regulatory pressure from the EU’s DMA and higher 2026 capex/energy costs could weigh on margins and ad economics.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) Director John Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.65, for a total value of $348,232.50. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,581 shares in the company, valued at $1,187,638.65. The trade was a 22.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOGL stock traded up $5.66 during trading on Friday, reaching $341.68. 25,508,938 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,099,632. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $4.13 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.12. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.10 and a twelve month high of $349.00. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $306.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $301.36.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alphabet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,534,239,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,338,397,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 855.3% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 14,525,280 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,546,413,000 after acquiring an additional 13,004,828 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 528,969,322 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $165,567,398,000 after acquiring an additional 12,531,695 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 28.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $12,910,542,000 after acquiring an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DBS raised its price target on Alphabet to $400 and reiterated a Buy rating, signaling incremental analyst conviction and potential upside from AI and cloud growth. DBS Bank adjusts price target on Alphabet to $400 from $360; maintains buy rating
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst upgrade was reported today, supporting the stock’s rally by boosting short‑term investor sentiment. Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL Stock Price Up 1.3% on Analyst Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet secured a long‑term power supply deal for a large Indiana data center with NiSource, reducing energy supply uncertainty for Cloud/data‑center expansion. NiSource signs long-term power deal with Alphabet, expands Amazon agreement
• Positive Sentiment: Product/AI momentum: Google is rolling out photo integration to Gemini (and Nano Banana), which strengthens consumer AI features and engagement pathways that can feed monetization. Google will let users connect their photos to the Gemini chatbot and Nano Banana
• Neutral Sentiment: Speculative models predict further upside into month‑end, but machine‑learning forecasts are noisy and should be treated as sentiment indicators rather than fundamentals. Machine learning algorithm predicts Google stock price on April 30, 2026
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet is reportedly in talks with the U.S. Department of Defense on deploying Gemini in classified settings — a potential revenue/strategic win but with contractual/clearing complexities. Google, Pentagon discuss classified AI deal, the Information reports
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks and other outlets continue to flag Alphabet as a long‑term growth name given AI and cloud leadership; useful for conviction but already priced into the rally. Why Alphabet (GOOGL) is a Top Growth Stock for the Long-Term
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: the European Commission has outlined measures under the DMA that would force Google to share search and AI chat data with rivals — this could pressure search advantage and ad economics in Europe. Google should allow third-party search engines access to data, EU says
• Negative Sentiment: Cost and margin risks: analysts warn that 2026 capex, higher depreciation and energy costs could squeeze margins and free cash flow even as revenue growth from AI/cloud accelerates. Alphabet Shares Rise 7% YTD: Buy, Sell, or Hold the GOOGL Stock?

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on GOOGL shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $397.00 to $361.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Daiwa Securities Group raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $333.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Moffett Nathanson raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.25.

About Alphabet

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.

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.