Pitcairn Co. Sells 18,330 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Pitcairn Co. cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 28.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 46,024 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 18,330 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up approximately 0.9% of Pitcairn Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $11,209,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter worth $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. increased its stake in Alphabet by 60.9% in the 2nd quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.30, for a total transaction of $867,569.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 8,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,798,832.60. This trade represents a 23.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total transaction of $14,341,182.30. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,987,279.15. The trade was a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,112,493 shares of company stock valued at $118,605,094. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on GOOG shares. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. KeyCorp set a $370.00 target price on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on Alphabet from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Nine investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Alphabet News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large enterprise/cloud wins and AI demand: Google Cloud deals (CVS health AI platform) and reported TPU leasing by Meta point to higher recurring cloud revenue and infrastructure utilization that support near‑term revenue growth. CVS taps Google Cloud Meta leases Google TPUs
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals/analyst support: Q4 results and earnings beats reinforce the “quality growth” narrative, and Bank of America’s reiterated Buy/$370 target keeps bull case intact. Q4 quality growth Bank of America maintains $370
• Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic access clarified: Google says Anthropic remains available for non‑defense uses after a DoD blacklist — this reduces near‑term disruption risk to customers but leaves policy uncertainty around defense contracts. Google on Anthropic availability
• Neutral Sentiment: Market narrative shifting: Analysts note GOOG’s strong 12‑month run has moved it from a “value” label to an execution/AI‑growth story — bullish if growth continues, but raises expectations. Forbes valuation piece
• Negative Sentiment: Geopolitical / physical risk to infrastructure: Reports that hyperscaler data centers are becoming military targets in the Iran war increase operational and security risk for cloud operations and potential outages. Data centers targeted
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/legal headwinds and fee cuts: The Epic Games settlement (lower Play Store commissions) and a high‑profile Gemini wrongful‑death lawsuit raise revenue/margin and liability concerns for consumer services. Play Store settlement Gemini lawsuit
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory scrutiny on Waymo / AV safety and technical/short‑term chart pressure: NTSB/industry scrutiny of autonomous‑vehicle safety plus technical analysts calling a short thesis add to near‑term selling pressure. Waymo NTSB scrutiny Chart short thesis

Alphabet Trading Down 0.9%

Alphabet stock opened at $298.30 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.66 and a 52 week high of $350.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.61 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.59, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $320.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $286.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

About Alphabet

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.