Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Mechanics Bank Trust Department

Mechanics Bank Trust Department trimmed its holdings in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 1.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 114,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,990 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 3.9% of Mechanics Bank Trust Department’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Mechanics Bank Trust Department’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $27,932,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GOOGL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $21,944,208,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 17,667.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,245,075 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,640,000 after buying an additional 15,159,273 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Alphabet by 51.7% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,817,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,607,232,000 after acquiring an additional 10,843,853 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Alphabet by 201.3% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,547,250 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,153,824,000 after acquiring an additional 4,374,542 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Major strategic wins for Gemini — Apple has chosen Google’s Gemini as the foundation for next‑generation Siri and broader device integrations, giving Alphabet unmatched distribution and a potential licensing revenue stream that underpins the recent rally. Why Apple Chose Google to Power the Future of AI
• Positive Sentiment: Product commercialization accelerating — Google launched a Personal Intelligence beta in the Gemini app (and is rolling Gemini features into Gmail), signaling faster product rollouts and clearer paths to monetize AI across Google’s services. Google launches Personal Intelligence in Gemini app
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and valuation milestone — Alphabet surpassed a $4 trillion market cap and received buy‑side bullishness (including a Bank of America price target raise), which supports further multiple expansion and momentum chasing. Alphabet Tops $4 Trillion Valuation
• Neutral Sentiment: Supply chain / hardware moves — Reports Google will develop and manufacture high‑end phones in Vietnam this year; long term this can diversify supply chains but it’s early and capex/timing make the near‑term impact modest. Google to develop, manufacture smartphones in Vietnam
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector dynamics — Articles on data‑infrastructure winners (e.g., Pure Storage) and Microsoft’s retail AI moves highlight rising demand for data centers and competition across the AI stack; these trends are broadly supportive for Alphabet’s cloud/AI TAM but also signal intensifying competition and higher capital intensity. Best Growth Stocks to Buy in 2026
• Negative Sentiment: Power and grid bottlenecks — Google executives say U.S. electrical transmission constraints and decade‑plus wait times to connect new data centers are the biggest obstacle to scaling, which could slow capacity expansion and raise deployment/capex risk. Google says US transmission system is biggest challenge
• Negative Sentiment: App‑store / reputational pressure — A coalition is urging Google to remove X and Grok from app stores, creating potential regulatory/PR friction around content moderation and platform responsibilities that could lead to policy scrutiny or compliance costs. Women’s groups call on Apple, Google to drop X and Grok

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Mizuho set a $365.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price objective (up from $250.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. President Capital lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $258.00 to $323.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. CIBC boosted their target price on Alphabet to $315.00 in a report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, New Street Research raised their price target on Alphabet from $275.00 to $295.00 in a report on Friday, October 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.31.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $335.84 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $309.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $252.67. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $140.53 and a fifty-two week high of $340.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.05 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.08.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. Analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued 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, December 8th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 8.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other news, insider John Kent Walker sold 17,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.89, for a total value of $5,614,173.81. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,531,453.08. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.48, for a total transaction of $9,213,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,337,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $662,526,494.12. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 189,309 shares of company stock worth $57,724,770. Company insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.