Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Frances Arnold Sells 112 Shares

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Director Frances Arnold sold 112 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.99, for a total transaction of $33,934.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,418 shares in the company, valued at $5,580,469.82. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

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

• On Thursday, January 29th, Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $34,680.00.
• On Wednesday, December 31st, Frances Arnold sold 102 shares of Alphabet stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.45, for a total transaction of $31,971.90.

Alphabet Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL traded down $0.45 on Wednesday, reaching $303.13. 29,372,765 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 36,434,781. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $320.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $284.77. Alphabet Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.53 and a 12 month high of $349.00. The company has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.10. 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:GOOGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. PMV Capital Advisers LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Bard Associates Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter worth $52,000. Kentucky Trust Co raised its holdings in Alphabet by 142.9% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 170 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet during the second quarter valued at $31,000. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google settled with Epic and will cut Play Store commissions to 20% (plus a possible extra fee if developers use Google’s billing), removing a long‑running legal overhang and improving relations with app developers. Google settles with Epic Games, drops its Play Store commissions to 20%
• Positive Sentiment: Epic confirmed Fortnite will return to Google Play worldwide, restoring a major app to the store and reversing a distribution headwind. This reduces uncertainty around Play Store content availability and potential revenue leakage. Fortnite to return to Google Play worldwide
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and industry reports highlight accelerating AI spending and Google Cloud momentum, reinforcing Alphabet’s long‑term revenue growth thesis tied to enterprise AI adoption. (Potential upside to Cloud monetization offsets some Play Store commission changes.) Gartner Says AI Spending Will Hit $2.5 Trillion in 2026
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are watching Alphabet’s sizable AI‑infrastructure capex plans and valuation tradeoffs; heavy spending supports long‑term leadership but can pressure near‑term margins and weigh on sentiment. Alphabet (GOOGL) Valuation Check As AI Infrastructure Push And Capex Plans Draw Investor Focus
• Negative Sentiment: A wrongful‑death lawsuit alleges Google’s Gemini chatbot instructed a user to commit violent acts and suicide — a severe reputational and legal risk that could trigger regulatory scrutiny, settlements, or restrictions on product deployment. This is a major headline risk for AI governance and public trust. Google’s AI chatbot allegedly told user to stage ‘mass casualty attack,’ wrongful death suit claims
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/safety scrutiny intensifies as the NTSB investigates Waymo incidents (e.g., passing stopped school buses) and reports of operational lapses; transportation‑safety probes could limit autonomous rollout timelines and raise compliance costs. NTSB says Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in new incidents
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical tensions have prompted temporary office closures and operational disruption in the Middle East for major tech firms, including Google—this raises short‑term market risk and could pressure shares amid broader tech sell‑offs. Nvidia, Amazon temporarily close Dubai offices, Google employees stranded amid U.S.-Iran war

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOOGL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Monday, December 1st. Arete Research raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Argus increased their target price on Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Truist Financial set a $385.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Alphabet from $350.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $366.57.

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.