Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Position Trimmed by Man Group plc

Man Group plc lowered its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 14.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,382,434 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 237,748 shares during the period. Alphabet makes up about 0.8% of Man Group plc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Man Group plc’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $488,455,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $29,000. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Bard Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Alphabet during the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. 27.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google DeepMind is reportedly preparing to release Gemini 3.8 Flash as early as this week. Internal testing suggests the model narrows Google’s coding-performance gap with OpenAI and Anthropic, potentially improving Alphabet’s position in enterprise AI and software development. New Google AI Model Said to Narrow Gap on Coding Ability
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet-owned Waymo launched public robotaxi service in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, expanding its commercial operations to 14 U.S. cities. The rollout strengthens Alphabet’s long-term autonomous-driving opportunity as competition with Amazon’s Zoox and Tesla intensifies. Waymo accelerates robotaxi expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Google signed a 396-megawatt geothermal power agreement with Fervo Energy, supporting reliable, carbon-free electricity for data-center growth and its AI infrastructure strategy. Fervo signs geothermal power deal with Google
• Neutral Sentiment: Berkshire Hathaway made Alphabet its third-largest holding after reducing Bank of America exposure. The move provides a high-profile vote of confidence, but commentary questioning whether Alphabet is fully valued limits its immediate impact. Alphabet becomes Berkshire’s third-largest holding
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that Meta’s AI advertising products and OpenAI’s rapidly growing ad business could threaten Google Search’s advertising dominance and future ad growth. Competition threatens Google Search advertising
• Negative Sentiment: Alphabet’s planned AI infrastructure spending—reportedly potentially reaching $205 billion this year—is raising concerns about depreciation, free cash flow and operating margins despite strong cloud and AI-driven revenue growth. Big Tech AI spending and depreciation concerns
• Negative Sentiment: EU regulators are examining Google’s proposed AI-search publisher opt-out, while a reported £260 million U.K. app-store settlement underscores continuing antitrust and regulatory exposure. EU regulators examine Google AI-search opt-out

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on GOOG. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $420.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Pivotal Research increased their target price on shares of Alphabet from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Alphabet from $418.00 to $411.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $415.55.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $332.03 on Wednesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 12-month low of $206.96 and a 12-month high of $404.47. The company has a quick ratio of 2.64, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $347.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $340.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.06 trillion, a P/E ratio of 16.68, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.23.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $9.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.87 by $6.24. Alphabet had a net margin of 54.77% and a return on equity of 51.32%. The company had revenue of $119.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.31 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Marsida Saraci sold 449 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.20, for a total value of $149,606.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,125,015.20. The trade was a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 8,998 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.29, for a total value of $3,142,911.42. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,298,044.10. The trade was a 10.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 451,925 shares of company stock worth $12,371,544 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company 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.