Frances Arnold Sells 82 Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Stock

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.71, for a total transaction of $27,692.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,414,801.45. This represents a 0.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Frances Arnold also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, July 30th, Frances Arnold sold 82 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.39, for a total transaction of $27,337.98.
• On Tuesday, June 30th, Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $351.28, for a total transaction of $39,343.36.

Alphabet Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of GOOGL stock opened at $335.02 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $349.18 and a 200-day moving average of $342.18. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $206.20 and a 12-month high of $408.61. The firm has a market cap of $4.10 trillion, a P/E ratio of 16.83, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.24.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $6.22. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.07 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of several research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $420.00 target price (down from $435.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. New Street Research lifted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Pivotal Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $475.00 price target (up from $470.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $420.19.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Agur Provident & Training Funds Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,053,000. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.0% in the second quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. now owns 6,139 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,194,000 after buying an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 18.2% in the second quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 3,935 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,406,000 after buying an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Formuepleje A S boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 12.0% in the second quarter. Formuepleje A S now owns 249,813 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $89,276,000 after acquiring an additional 26,747 shares during the period. Finally, Tucker Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.9% in the second quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 2,381 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $851,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. 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: Reports indicate Google could release Gemini 3.8 Flash this week. Internal testing reportedly shows meaningful improvement in coding, an area where Alphabet has trailed Anthropic and OpenAI. A stronger model could improve Google’s AI product competitiveness and investor confidence. New Google AI Model Said to Narrow Gap on Coding Ability
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet-owned Waymo began offering paid autonomous rides in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, expanding its commercial service to 14 U.S. cities. The rollout strengthens Alphabet’s position in the emerging robotaxi market and creates a potential long-term growth opportunity beyond advertising and cloud computing. Waymo accelerates robotaxi expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Google agreed to purchase 396 megawatts of geothermal power from Fervo Energy’s Utah project. The deal supports the electricity needs of Alphabet’s expanding AI data-center infrastructure while providing greater visibility into its strategy for securing reliable, lower-carbon power. Fervo geothermal power deal with Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Alphabet introduced Google Pics, an AI-powered image creation and editing tool for Google Workspace and premium AI subscribers. The product could broaden monetization, but its near-term financial impact is uncertain. Google Pics AI design tool
• Neutral Sentiment: Android accessibility and personalization updates, along with Google Maps’ adoption of the “Lake America” name, increase product visibility but are unlikely to materially affect Alphabet’s earnings.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that OpenAI’s rapidly expanding advertising business could eventually pressure Google Search, Alphabet’s core profit engine. Reports of employee departures and a continuing AI talent race add to uncertainty around execution. OpenAI advertising threat to Google Search
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators are questioning Google’s proposed AI-search opt-out policy, while recent European concessions and a £260 million U.K. app-store settlement reinforce concerns about regulatory costs and potential damage to search and platform economics. EU regulators question Google AI-search policy

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.