Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Rathbones Group PLC

Rathbones Group PLC lessened its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 4.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,907,557 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 88,225 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.9% of Rathbones Group PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $464,586,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 120,253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $22,901,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 14,506 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,697,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 7.4% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 594,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $105,540,000 after acquiring an additional 41,132 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 2.8% during the second quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,448 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,853,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Achmea Investment Management B.V. raised its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the second quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 552,820 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $98,065,000 after buying an additional 20,945 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near‑term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non‑defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near‑term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12‑month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI‑growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high‑profile Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short‑term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous‑vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near‑term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.38, for a total transaction of $9,859,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,674,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $508,028,012.80. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $360.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $343.90.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $298.30 on Friday. 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 firm’s 50-day moving average price is $320.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $286.82. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $142.66 and a 52-week high of $350.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.10.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion during 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%.The business’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.15 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 7.77%.

Alphabet Company Profile

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.