Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by Westpac Banking Corp

Posted by Trevor Kearing on Mar 12th, 2026

Westpac Banking Corp decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG – Free Report) by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 45,804 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,669 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.7% of Westpac Banking Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,156,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet by 100.0% during the second quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 145.0% in the third quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 196 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.5%

GOOG opened at $308.42 on Thursday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.66 and a 12-month high of $350.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $319.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $289.01.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.15 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total value of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. The trade was a 23.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,244,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,112,493 shares of company stock worth $118,605,094 in the last quarter. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

Positive Sentiment: Alphabet closed its largest-ever acquisition, buying cybersecurity firm Wiz for about $32 billion — a major strategic move to beef up Google Cloud’s security offerings and drive enterprise revenue. Google officially snaps up Wiz as it closes mammoth $32 billion deal
Positive Sentiment: TPG sold its stake in solar/storage platform Intersect to Google — expanding Alphabet’s clean-energy footprint and potentially supporting longer-term data-center/cloud cost control. TPG Refocuses On Clean Energy With Intersect Exit And IPX Power Launch
Positive Sentiment: Canal+ signed a multi-year deal to deploy Google Cloud generative AI across production and streaming — a customer win that supports Cloud/AI monetization. Canal+ taps Google’s AI for video production, content recommendation
Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Google rolled out Gemini Embedding 2 and integrated Gemini into Workspace apps — these product improvements support ad/Cloud upsell and productivity use cases. Google (GOOGL) Stock Rises after Introducing New Gemini Embedding 2 AI Model
Positive Sentiment: Analyst/bench strength: brokerages maintain a bullish consensus (majority “Buy”) and several recent price-target raises — supports medium-term upside expectations. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages
Neutral Sentiment: GFiber (Google Fiber) will combine with Astound and be majority owned by Stonepeak; Alphabet keeps a minority stake — monetizes infrastructure but reduces operational control. Google sells partial stake in fiber business, becomes minority owner of new venture
Neutral Sentiment: DoD/Pentagon deployment: Google is rolling out Gemini AI agents on the Pentagon’s GenAI.mil for unclassified tasks — a large potential enterprise deployment but one that brings political/regulatory complexity. Google deepens Pentagon AI push after Anthropic sues Trump administration
Neutral Sentiment: Branding note — Google named its new London HQ “Platform 37” (nod to King’s Cross and AlphaGo history). Low direct financial impact. Google names London office ‘Platform 37’ in a nod to railway neighbour, AI ‘Go’ match
Negative Sentiment: Regulatory risk: UK regulator deadline to better protect children online raises compliance and potential ad-targeting constraints that could pressure ad revenue in Europe. Big tech given warning – and deadline – by UK regulator

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $395.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $365.00 price target (up from $355.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Alphabet

Alphabet Profile

(Free Report)

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.