Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Sells 84,599 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB cut its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 25.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 245,736 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 84,599 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 1.4% of Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $59,849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,298,572,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Alphabet by 8.6% in 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. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Alphabet by 73.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 9,808,152 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,388,775,000 after buying an additional 4,154,929 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Alphabet by 17,547.9% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,122,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $731,331,000 after buying an additional 4,099,366 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Alphabet by 330.4% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,989,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $707,691,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,590 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DeepMind hires Bridgewater chief scientist Jasjeet Sekhon as chief strategy officer — a high‑profile AI talent win that signals Alphabet is accelerating DeepMind’s commercial and research push vs. OpenAI/Anthropic. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s Stitch redesign and other product updates are pressuring competitors (Adobe, Figma), showing Alphabet can leverage AI to expand into new workflows and monetize developer/designer tools. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet’s Wiz buyout expands Google Cloud’s security portfolio — strengthens competitive positioning against AWS/Azure and supports enterprise AI adoption. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is rebuilding Pentagon ties and appears well‑placed for government AI work after competitors’ controversies — a potential revenue/contract upside. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Google says it will let websites opt out of generative AI in search to address UK competition concerns — could head off regulatory risk but may limit product scope in UK markets. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet is increasing reliance on Chinese suppliers for advanced liquid cooling and may acquire a Chinese cooling firm — improves capacity for AI data centers but raises new geopolitical, export‑control and regulatory risks. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing) and other insider sales continue; large insider selling can spur short‑term caution among investors. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Broad concerns about hyperscaler AI capex — heavy spending raises questions about the pace of returns and margin/valuation pressure for big cloud/AI names (including Alphabet). Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet paid its first 2026 dividend ($0.21/share) and maintains strong analyst sentiment/price targets, which supports longer‑term investor confidence. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 955 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.00, for a total transaction of $284,590.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,955,564. This trade represents a 8.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total value of $10,439,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,244,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $720,914,730.12. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,109,115 shares of company stock valued at $117,815,536. Company insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp set a $370.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $385.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC set a $400.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, January 5th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $345.71.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

GOOG stock opened at $306.30 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $318.68 and a 200 day moving average of $292.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $350.15. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is currently 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.