Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Buys 412,130 Shares of Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA lifted its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 49.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,237,301 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 412,130 shares during the period. Alphabet comprises approximately 5.8% of Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $387,275,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth about $416,217,000. Griffin Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Alphabet by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc. now owns 58,731 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,277,000 after acquiring an additional 7,180 shares in the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 23.6% in the third quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 22,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,401,000 after acquiring an additional 4,241 shares during the last quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 2.9% in the second quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,415,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. lifted its position in shares of Alphabet by 4.7% during the second quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 1,457,732 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $256,896,000 after purchasing an additional 65,439 shares in the last quarter. 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: DeepMind hired Jasjeet Sekhon, Bridgewater’s chief scientist, as chief strategy officer — a high‑profile talent win that reinforces Alphabet’s DeepMind AI bench and long‑term product roadmap. Exclusive: Bridgewater’s chief scientist Sekhon to join Google’s DeepMind AI unit
• Positive Sentiment: High‑profile endorsement: Elon Musk tweeted that Google will “win the AI race in the West,” a bullish signal for market perception of Alphabet’s AI leadership. Elon Musk Says China Will Win The AI Race, But Here’s Where SpaceX Will Win
• Positive Sentiment: Product momentum: Google’s new “Stitch” AI design features are pressuring rivals (e.g., Figma’s stock fell), underscoring expanding addressable market for Google’s AI tools. Figma’s stock drops 11% in two days after Google releases ‘vibe design’ product
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary highlights Alphabet’s operational strength (consecutive earnings beats, Cloud acceleration), supporting the bullish analyst consensus and relative outperformance among mega‑caps. 2 Tech Giants Holding Their Ground While the Market Slides
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider sales disclosed: CEO Sundar Pichai sold ~32,500 shares (~$10M) and Director John Hennessy sold a small stake — notable but small relative to total insider holdings; monitor if these continue. Insider filing: Sundar Pichai sale
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest data in the feeds appears anomalous/zero and provides no clear signal (no days‑to‑cover build reported).
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive takes: Analysts compare Snowflake and Alphabet on cloud analytics — SNOW’s momentum is notable but doesn’t negate Google Cloud’s growth trajectory. Snowflake vs Alphabet: Which Cloud Analytics Stock Has an Edge Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concern about massive hyperscaler AI spending — analysts flag $410B+ capex across hyperscalers and question near‑term returns, a theme that can pressure tech multiples including GOOGL. Forget the War Headlines: This Is the Real Reason Tech Stocks Are Struggling
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation debate persists: coverage notes shifting investment story as AI deals and capex raise questions about near‑term upside despite solid fundamentals. How The Alphabet (GOOGL) Investment Story Is Shifting With AI Deals And Valuation Questions

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on GOOGL shares. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $415.00 price objective on Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Alphabet from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $360.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-three have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.41, for a total value of $318,580.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,405,091.71. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder 2017 Gp L.L.C. Gv sold 1,845,308 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $35,060,852.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,110,165 shares of company stock valued at $118,134,117 over the last 90 days. 11.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Stock Performance

GOOGL stock opened at $301.00 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.53 and a twelve month high of $349.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market cap of $3.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average is $317.62 and its 200-day moving average is $293.14.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $113.83 billion during 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

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

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.