Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Sold by NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan

NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan lowered its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 98,200 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 8,800 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for approximately 2.6% of NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,917,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. University of Illinois Foundation acquired a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 145.0% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 196 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horrell Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total value of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $856,605,814.08. The trade was a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 47,574 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were 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 approximately $3,987,279.15. This represents a 78.25% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock worth $119,145,289 in the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $345.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Alphabet from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $315.00 to $400.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Loop Capital raised shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $343.90.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $314.90 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.10. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.66 and a 1 year high of $350.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $320.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $278.92.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The business’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.15 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

Key Alphabet News

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and brokers have raised price targets and highlighted AI/cloud upside (UBS, Canaccord), citing Gemini adoption and generative‑AI capex that could add meaningful cloud revenue. UBS generative AI capex note
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet committed to a major $15B America‑India Connect initiative and announced partnerships (Zillow, Sea) that expand Gemini/Cloud into verticals — positive for long‑term cloud/ads monetization and market reach. America-India Connect announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Notable institutional buying from hedge funds (e.g., Appaloosa/Tepper, Altimeter, Viking) signals conviction in Alphabet’s AI/Cloud thesis and can support the stock through execution milestones. Appaloosa increases stake
• Neutral Sentiment: Product demos (Gemini AI coach, music features) and consumer launches (Pixel device with AI features) improve user engagement and positioning but are not immediate revenue drivers. Gemini demo on CNBC
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data for February shows anomalies (zeros/NaN) and provides no clear bearish signal at present; treat the statistic cautiously until reconciled.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: senior execs disclosed sizable sales (Sundar Pichai, John Kent Walker), which markets often view as a modest near‑term negative signal despite normal tax/liquidity reasons. Pichai sale filing Walker sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/IP risk: prosecutors have charged engineers in an alleged scheme to steal Google trade secrets and pass files abroad — reputational and security concerns that could invite regulatory scrutiny. Trade-secrets indictment
• Negative Sentiment: Execution/supply risks: DeepMind’s CEO warned that memory‑chip shortages constrain agentic AI research/deployment, which could slow rollout timing or raise costs for compute‑intensive initiatives. DeepMind chip shortage comments
• Negative Sentiment: Several institutional investors disclosed trims (Pershing Square, Longview, others). Broad portfolio rebalancing can weigh on near‑term sentiment even if longer‑term AI momentum remains. Pershing Square trim

Alphabet Profile

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.