Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Bought by Rice Partnership LLC

Rice Partnership LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 4.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 94,824 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,349 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for 3.7% of Rice Partnership LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Rice Partnership LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $27,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth $52,000. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is reportedly backing a potential $15 billion Texas data-center project tied to Anthropic, providing financial guarantees and chips. The project could strengthen Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure position and create additional demand for Alphabet’s services, although the guarantees also add financial exposure. Anthropic data center financing
• Positive Sentiment: Google said AI-assisted development enabled it to fix more Chrome security vulnerabilities in June than during the previous two years combined. Faster security improvements could support Chrome’s reliability and Google’s broader AI-productivity narrative. Google Chrome security improvements
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains broadly favorable: Erste Group raised its 2026 EPS forecast to $20.50 from $14.27, above the roughly $20.15 consensus, while other firms maintain bullish ratings and targets. Alphabet also expanded its Gemini partnership with Oracle, potentially widening enterprise AI distribution. Alphabet growth-stock analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Microsoft’s strong Azure and Copilot results reinforce robust enterprise AI demand, but they also highlight the intense competition among hyperscalers and may raise investor expectations for Google Cloud.
• Negative Sentiment: Reddit’s CEO said Google’s AI Overviews have not replaced the referral value of traditional “10 blue links.” Reduced traffic to publishers could increase pressure on Google’s search ecosystem and raise questions about how AI summaries will protect advertising economics. Reddit CEO comments on Google AI Overviews
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet faces additional sentiment headwinds from securities-law investigations and recent insider or major-shareholder stock sales. These filings are relatively small compared with Alphabet’s market value, but they can weigh on confidence during a post-earnings selloff.

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $333.66 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $187.82 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The company has a market capitalization of $4.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 16.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $358.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $339.18. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $6.22. The firm had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. Research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, major shareholder 2019 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 196,931 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $3,832,277.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 75,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. This represents a 10.68% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 600,547 shares of company stock valued at $16,255,540 in the last three months. 11.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on GOOGL. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $400.00 to $379.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $390.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. CICC Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $388.00 to $407.91 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, May 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $419.86.

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.