Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Holdings Boosted by Ninety One SA PTY Ltd

Ninety One SA PTY Ltd grew its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 5.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 130,766 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,295 shares during the period. Alphabet accounts for 4.6% of Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $31,705,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 110,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $20,886,000 after purchasing an additional 4,110 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 14,930 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the period. WBI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the first quarter valued at approximately $417,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in Alphabet by 36.8% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,814,959 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $280,190,000 after acquiring an additional 488,549 shares during the period. Finally, Modern Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Alphabet by 23.0% in the first quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 65,087 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $10,065,000 after acquiring an additional 12,189 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.19, for a total value of $184,914.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,206,872.04. The trade was a 13.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.21, for a total value of $10,439,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,244,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $720,914,730.12. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 225,187 shares of company stock valued at $66,695,036 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. New Street Research raised their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $275.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Moffett Nathanson upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Alphabet from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-four have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.19.

Alphabet Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of GOOGL opened at $328.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.53 and a 1-year high of $330.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $306.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $248.74.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The firm had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.00% and a net margin of 32.23%. Equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 8.28%.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI & advertising momentum: Analysts and media posit that Alphabet’s Gemini/AI-search progress and a strong advertising engine are driving a renewed rally and expectations that the company can join the $4 trillion market-cap group. Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Stock Will Become a Member of the $4 Trillion Club in 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Market-cap milestone: Alphabet has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable public company — a status shift that can attract index/ETF flows and underpins momentum. Google Claims Apple’s Spot on Most-Valuable-Companies List
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised price targets and issued bullish notes heading into 2026, reinforcing institutional demand and supporting higher valuations. Analyst revises Google stock price target for the next 12 months
• Neutral Sentiment: Wiz acquisition pending EU decision: The EU will decide on Alphabet’s $32B Wiz buy by Feb. 10 — resolution will remove a major overhang but could bring remedies or conditions. EU antitrust regulators to decide on Google’s Wiz deal by February 10
• Neutral Sentiment: Lawsuit settlements on AI chatbots: Alphabet and Character.AI settled suits tied to minors’ harm, which reduces immediate legal uncertainty but keeps reputational and regulatory scrutiny active. Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
• Negative Sentiment: App-store pressure from U.S. senators: Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to suspend Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps after allegations that Grok-enabled image generation facilitated sexualized images of minors — this directly implicates Google’s Play Store and could invite political/regulatory attention. Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares (SEC filing). The sale is small relative to his holdings but can be viewed negatively by some market participants. Sundar Pichai stock sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: Talent poaching: Nvidia hired a senior Google marketing executive as CMO — a signal that top talent is mobile amid fierce AI competition, which could concern investors about retention. Nvidia Hires Google Veteran as Its First Chief Marketing Officer

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.