Groupama Asset Managment Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 7.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 891,182 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 60,861 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises 0.8% of Groupama Asset Managment’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Groupama Asset Managment’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $216,646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 516,559,609 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $91,033,300,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733,278 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Alphabet by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 229,954,269 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $40,524,841,000 after purchasing an additional 4,008,374 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Alphabet by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,615,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $24,857,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,224,497 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 2nd quarter worth $21,944,208,000. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Alphabet by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 53,107,572 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,910,542,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605,785 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: DeepMind hires Bridgewater’s chief scientist Jasjeet Sekhon as chief strategy officer — a notable AI talent win that reinforces Alphabet’s product roadmap and competitive positioning in AI. Reuters: Sekhon to join DeepMind
• Positive Sentiment: Google’s Wiz acquisition expands Google Cloud’s security portfolio, strengthening the Cloud growth narrative that underpins future revenue diversification. Zacks: GOOGL’s Wiz buyout
• Positive Sentiment: Regulatory concession: Google will let sites opt out of generative AI search features in the UK — reduces near‑term regulatory risk to search revenue. Reuters: Google to allow AI opt‑out
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares and director John Hennessy sold a smaller stake — notable but small relative to total insider holdings; monitor for pattern. InsiderTrades: Pichai sale
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data in feeds appears anomalous/zero and does not indicate a meaningful short build or squeeze at present.
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/valuation headwinds: analysts flag $410B+ hyperscaler AI capex and uncertainty over returns, a theme that keeps pressure on tech multiples (including Alphabet). Fool: Reason tech stocks struggle
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive/market pressure: analyst pieces note rising competition in cloud analytics (Snowflake) and product battles that could temper near‑term share gains despite execution. Zacks: Snowflake vs Alphabet

Alphabet Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $307.13 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 52-week low of $140.53 and a 52-week high of $349.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $318.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $291.96. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.25. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.24 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were issued 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 was Monday, March 9th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 7.77%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $354.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Argus upped their price objective on Alphabet from $365.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, New Street Research increased their price objective on Alphabet from $330.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $367.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,091.71. The trade was a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.45, for a total value of $14,341,182.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,227 shares in the company, valued at $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,110,165 shares of company stock worth $118,134,117. Corporate insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

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.